On the 26th September ten agricultural students and one agricultural teacher got on a Colegio Bolivar School bus and travelled to Palmira to an agricultural research station. CORPOICA (Corporacion Colombiana de Investigacion Agropecuaria) sede Palmira is the agricultural research station funded by the Colombian Government, based in Valle Del Cauca. CORPOICA has sites 19 sites […]
During our last lesson in the garden, whilst we were preparing beds, one of the agricultural students was adamant that a rock should be removed from the second terrace before the bed could properly be used. It was cautioned that this was not going to be easy, and that the rock was large, but there […]
It has always been a goal of the Bolivar Garden Project to include members from the wider Bolivar Community, not just students, teachers, maintenance, and administration but to other school staff, the wider students community (K-12), parents, alumni, The Board and friends of the school. For this reason a series of Bolivar Garden Weekends has […]
Dr Nagy asked me at the start of this academic year if I was indeed going to consider growing coffee as a crop. I thought this an excellent idea and so brought some seeds from Finca El Manatial, in Chicoral to show students the process of starting a mini coffee plantation. Students were shown the […]
Before planning beds students were asked to group different plant crops according to the families in which they existed. Primarily these were the Brassicas -Cruciferae (cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kale, radish, swede and turnip); Legumes – Leguminosae (pea, beans, peanuts); Potato – Solanaceae (potato, tomato, aubergine and peppers); Umbellifers – Umbelliferae (carrot, parsnip, parsley, celery, […]
The students first investigated what makes up soil, its major properties, its structure and composition, and taxonomy before testing the acidity of the soil using pH paper and meters, and soil respiration using a Solvita low level CO2 soil respiration burst monitor. Students measuring soil temperature at 15cm, and taking soil samples (90g) in […]
After the summer recess my new students and I came back to see that the school´s iguanas had had a great feast on our planted pumpkins and that the two terraces that had been developed before the summer had become overgrown with grass. The first task was to get rid of the grass. This was […]
A lot has happened in the first two months of the new academic school year. We have a eleven new students from 11th and 12th grade; new work in the garden; involvement from the wider Colegio Bolivar Community; trips and future plans. Please read the new blogs to have a deeper look into what has […]
We are delighted to invite members of the school community to come and work with us in the Bolivar Garden. The dates of the Saturday sessions are as follows: 16th September 2017 21st October 2017 18th November 2017 16th December 2017 20th January 2018 10th February 2018 10th March 2018 14th April 2018 12th May […]
Towards the end of the first year of agriculture the students and I thought it would be interesting to try and grow pumpkins for Halloween celebrations commencing in October. We were kindly provided with pumpkin seeds by Dr Casey Hurley and Ms. Amanda Smith (an ex 6th grade teacher). We prepared the land with agriculture […]
