We have been working on the organic garden in the Chuk Muk elementary school since the beginning of January, getting it ready for the start of the school year. The elementary school has a new principal and vice principal in 2025 and they are really interested in having a comprehensive garden program.
We started by redigging all the bamboo beds and putting the weeds at the bottom.
These raised beds were constructed by Aldea Maya many years ago and required us to chip through solid stone.
We then made bokashi, a hot compost, and put that on the top of the garden beds. We needed to collect manure, leaves, weed from lake, wood chip and add molasses.
Our middle school students volunteered to help with this process. We then gave them a nutritous snack.
The new beds were then ready for the students to plant.
So far this year the students have planted onion, cilantro, radish, beans, cabbage, lettuce, carrots, broccoli, , cauliflower and Swiss chard. The garden has avocado trees, macadamia nut trees, orange trees, lime trees, banana plants, chaya plants and a herb garden. We are planning on building an outdoor classroom in the future and to start a seed bank to enable the program to give seeds to students to start gardens at home.
