Steps in the garden

The following article involves the steps that have been carried out since the start of the Yard4All project in the garden activity of the Colomera School, in Granada. In this, the teacher Francisco Javier Sánchez shows the current state of the garden and share some conclusions about the participation in this activity.
“In this article, I will try to sequence from the preparation of the garden, to the current state of our plantation of broad beans and the future actions that must be carried out to conclude with the harvest.
At the end of October we cleared the part of the garden where we decided to place the allotment for the plantation of broad beans.
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​In the first ten days of November, the allotment was fertilised with mulch and strings were laid out to serve as a guide/frame for planting the broad bean seeds.

​The day before sowing, the reserved beans from last year's harvest were taken out and soaked for 24 hours to encourage germination, and the pupils were able to observe how after 24 hours soaking they already had their first sprouts.

With this simple and obvious technique, the pupils can experience that, from a dry seed, which at first seems dead, after a process as elementary as soaking for 24 hours, they can observe how this seed hydrates and the incipient sprouts of the future bushes of broad beans appear.
​The pupils plant the broad bean seeds in the allotment with the appropriate tools, such as a trowel or weeding hoe, using the planting frame guides to give them the necessary space for their correct development in the coming months.

​The main objective is that the students can live and experience in first person the whole process, from the preparation of the land that has been dedicated to the cultivation of broad beans (weeding, fertilisation of the allotment, preparation of the planting guide frame, preparation of the seeds, planting, watering, maintenance, removal of weeds, fertilisation, pest control) until the harvest is obtained.
In the following weeks, weeding, fertilising and watering will be carried out in order to encourage the growth of our broad bean plantation.
During flowering, the pupils will be able to see that for each bush of broad beans that results from one seed, we will obtain several pods of broad beans, experiencing that from one seed we obtain many more broad beans, giving place to the harvest or production.
The conclusions that the students are reaching and will reach is that they will value the work, dedication and perseverance, among others, that the farmers of our environment carry out in order to be able to have and enjoy at home the products of agricultural origin.
 
 
The conclusion we can reach is that traditional agricultural processes, with the exception of agricultural processes in greenhouses, are natural and seasonal processes, and regardless of the situation we live in, Covid-19, they continue their course.