Spicing up our lives
NPS International School has started an initiative to create a school herb and spice garden. An empty piece of land in the school grounds is now home to chilli, Thai basil, laksa leaves, rosemary, curry leaves, lemongrass, bitter gourd, mint and okra. The garden is overseen by teachers, but primarily run by students who are a part of the newly-formed Green Club.
The primary responsibilities of the club are maintaining the garden, educating staff and students about environmental issues and implementing a recycling scheme at the school. The Green Club has already started composting waste to create nutritious fertiliser for the plants.
The mission of the NPS International Herb and Spice garden is threefold. The first aim is to create a garden that brings students together to learn about herbs and spices from all over the world. In the process, they can initiate and participate in activities that go well beyond the curriculum. Secondly, the garden aims to enhance the school environment and create awareness about how to care for Mother Earth and treat her properly. Thirdly, it creates an opportunity for students to try their hand at gardening and caring for plants and the environment as a whole.
New crops will be grown soon and the students will then use the produce to create exciting culinary dishes from around the world.
The garden has created a lot of interest across all grades and plans are afoot to sell the produce to staff and parents so more people can enjoy the organic produce grown in the grounds of NPSI.
Rajarshi Das, Class IB Year 2
Stories contributed to tabla! from NPS International School