Harvest Time | Our Small Garden In School

Good day, Agri-minds! It's nice to share with you our harvest time of the cucumber from our school garden.

During the second quarter of this school year 2024-2025, our grade 7 learners under the Matatag Curriculum experienced the vegetable planting. In our Technology and Livelihood Education subject, we had the agri-fishery arts. We started our discussion about the career opportunities in agriculture until we tackled the preparations, planting, and harvesting of products.

I have given them a schedule to start their garden preparation. There was a group that followed my instructions carefully. The group that was assigned to plant the cucumber and the bottle gourd. They planted first the cucumber since it was the only seed they bought from the Agri-store. After 2 weeks, they applied the fish amino acid that I made last school year. Three weeks later, the cucumber flowers have been observed. I told the group to spray the calcium phosphate, which I also made last school year during our Sugbusog sa Eskwelahan Program.

Learners keep on monitoring the health of their plants. But the group that performed well is the one assigned to the vine plants. They have been too careful from the start until the moment the cucumber bears its product. They were excited to harvest their products and at the same time worried because there was a one-week mid-year break that they could not take care of their plants. Luckily, we have a hardworking watchwoman who took care of it. So from the time the classes resumed, there were cucumbers that were ready for the harvest.

The learners were shocked by the daily improvements to their garden. They learned to love planting with the use of the organic fertilizers, which they also tried to create. They created their own fish amino acid, calcium phosphate, and the insect attractant. Soon the fermentation process of the fish amino acids will end, and they will be utilized until the end of the school year as they continue to plant more vegetables.

_{Credits to one of the learners for these two photos.}

They harvested the cucumber, and I weighed it. We harvested at least 3 kilograms of cucumbers. I gave it to the group who took care of it, and I asked some of it for me to create a cucumber salad. They were very happy seeing the fruit of their hard work. Other groups became determined and inspired to do better in their assigned garden. They also asked for pieces of advice, and of course, I encouraged them to follow the given instructions.

I just hope that they will not get tired of taking care of their garden. And that they will be an inspiration to the other grade levels to plant vegetables not just in school but also at home. As the gardening coordinator in our school, I'm glad that this subject brings out the best skills of our learners in terms of gardening. It helped them understand farming and the importance of farming. We hope to harvest the bottle gourd this week or in the following week.

Thank you for reading this blog. Till next time, fellow gardeners.

_{Credits to Francis Chloe for the two photos.
Other photos in this content were captured using my phone.}