Here at St. Luke’s we are always trying to find new ways to be sustainable and care for God’s world. Over at the preschool, we have various studies throughout the year about recycling and composting. The students learn about ways to keep our world and water clean as well as new ways to use recycled items. They also learn about plant life cycles and what plants need to grow.
To expand on our sustainability efforts, we are really excited about our new addition to the Outdoor Classroom Lab – our Tower Garden. This is a vertical soil-free, self-watering, and self-lit tower that grows various plants and vegetables indoors all year long. It essentially “rains” inside the tower to water the plants and the LED lights mimic the sunlight that they would typically get if they were growing outside. The plants sit inside small pods and can easily be moved around or switched out whenever we’re ready for new plants. The main school has had their Tower Garden for a few years now, so we are excited to begin this journey over at the preschool!
Mrs. Jackson’s class helped “plant” the seedlings into the Tower Garden this past week. We will have three different types of lettuce, chamomile, marigold, and basil growing, but the options are endless. We chose to start with these plants because they are all edible to our rabbit and tortoise. They love to eat lettuce and other herbs daily, so this will be a great addition to their diet and help us stay sustainable by not having to buy these foods at the store each week. We’re looking forward to all the different plants we’ll be able to grow though!
We love to include our preschool classes in all of our sustainability efforts. It’s really neat to see their excitement and interest spark when they are able to help. The students are looking forward to watching the plants grow and helping feed the animals in our Lab.
