Working in the dirt

The greenhouse at Escuela Futaleufú.

I have to say that working on the greenhouse and composter at the school has been one of the most meaningful and healing activities I’ve done all year here in Futaleufú. I love it – turning organic things into other organic things, growing food, it’s wonderful. I tend to skip the shovels (I don’t have a spade actually) when possible and just get into the soil with my hands, I feel like it makes the work more intimate.

The children in the Brigada planting seedtrays in late winter.

The greenhouse and composter are part of the environmental education elective class or taller at the school. The 5th and 6th graders participate in the Brigada Ecológica which I help run alongside a teacher from the school and another local expert in biology and environmental issues. In the class, rather than spending most of our time learning concepts or taking tests, we dedicate our time to various hands-on projects around the school and the community.

We have, for example, done a clean-up of the Laguna Espejo in town and afterwards looked for steps to reduce littering in the area of the lake. We have run a composter at the school collecting organic waste from the school kitchen and turning it into a nutritive organic fertilizer. And we have repaired, planted and cared for the school’s greenhouse – growing a variety of plants including potatoes, lettuce, carrots, cabbage (to much cabbage really), beans, beets, parsley and radishes. We even have little strawberry bush plants growing in a “raised bed” that consists of a styrofoam container.

It’s no surprise that we don’t always get that much done during the class as it’s only run once a week with each grade, and I end up doing a lot of the gardening and composting work on my own outside of class time. But I think that’s ok – the point of an educational garden is that the students get to interact with it, learn from their work in it and get a sense of putting into motion some of the concepts and ideals they are learning about. And I think that the students get that from the greenhouse, while I also get the enjoyment and sense of accomplishment from putting in time to make the greenhouse successful.

Me happy after building a window in the greenhouse.

Yesterday I added a window to the greenhouse, because as the weather gets hotter and hotter it’s becoming more and more important to ventilate during the day to keep the plants from burning. I found the needed wood, borrowed a saw, bought the nails, and cut, sawed, hammered until the job was done. I think it turned out pretty good, and I know my little plants will appreciate it 🙂

Of course I always wish I could have done a little more. I will be leaving Futaleufú a week from tomorrow, on a bus to take me to a bus to a plane to a plane to drop me in Connecticut, USA. I will have to say goodbye to the little plants while they are still growing, before having gotten a chance to work on some sustainable watering systems with the kids. But I have gotten to eat some tasty radishes and their greens, which has been a pretty delicious and rewarding experience.

A radish growing in the greenhouse.