During the last class of the week the agric students and I mananged to finish the planting of the 64 cacao trees in the plot! After 190 hours of human endeavour, from reassigning holes, mixing soil, digging out new holes, allocating clones to planting, we have done it! Now we just have to protect the […]
Early on a bright and sunny day a bunch of volunteers, students, teachers, parents, social service students (and some in detention) came to the Bolivar Garden to plant our 64 clones! The day started by collecting more compost from Carlos´s compost area and mixing it with soil residue from Dr Martin´s mushroom farm. This was […]
In 2022 we were on the cusp of finally purchasing a meterological weather station when unfortunately, the school was hit by a huge cyberattack and the plan had to be put on hold. Last year a census of how a weather station could be used by staff in their classrooms was made and the results […]
Our terrace has been fallow for a year during the time we have been working on our cacao plantation. Now we plan to enlarge, improve and enclose the terrace. The first steps were to mark out the terrace and determine its new size. With students and volunteers we delimited the boundaries of the new […]
With a new batch of seedlings bought from Don Simón funds, students set about germinating seedlings of many types of brassicas (cabbages, kohl rabi, brussel sprouts and kale) and carrots, scorzona, parsnips and turnips. Seeds were germinated in newly purchased seedling trays and managed by students. Tomato plants were also seeded as were other herbs […]
On Saturday the 23rd November, Dr Sonia Ospina and her 20 agroforestry students from UniValle, sede Palmira, came to visit Colegio Bolivar to learn about the two agroforestry systems we have in place and to visit a functioning composting area run by our very own Carlos Castillo – second right hand man to the garden, […]
The Colegio Bolivar Sustainability leader, Jessica Gomez, a long-time friend and supporter of the Bolivar Garden approached me at the start of the year asking if the Agricultural Plant Science class and Bolivar Garden would represent the school at the COP 16 international conference on biodiversity held in Cali during the outreach presentations to the […]
Following the heartbreaking discovery that we have been attacked by broca, Hypothenemus hampei, we decided to quantify the extent of the damage and use it as a great learning opportunity. Students were asked to collect coffee and take samples of 100 beans and count the number that were affected by Broca. A startlingly high percentage […]
New connections through Bolivar Garden Saturdays A new year and new opportunities to work with other schools and colleagues. Professor Lionel Manrique of Colegio Philadelphia reached out to me after he had heard about the work that we are doing in the Bolivar Garden. He was invited to come to a Bolivar Garden Saturday […]
After two years of presenting projects to symposiums and returning back after pandemic it was decided that students needed to get back to writing scientific monographs and honing their research skills, learning about plant ecology and biology and how to manage their selected crop. Students have chosen a wide range of plants from orchids Saman […]
![[:en]COP 16: an opportunity to spread the word of the Bolivar Garden and Don Simón Coffee[:]](https://www.colegiobolivar.edu.co/garden2025/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_20241028_182115785_HDR-scaled-1.jpg)
![[:en]Nuevas Conexiones a través de Jardín Bolívar Sábados[:]](https://www.colegiobolivar.edu.co/garden2025/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/WhatsApp-Image-2025-04-06-at-1.00.03-AM.jpeg)
