LEARNING ACTIVITY
Creating an Indigenous plant-use garden: site assessment
Climate Region: Arid | Temperate | Tropical
State or Territory: All States/Territories
Age Range: 13-18

STORY

Jarrah and his friends are keen to get started on planting his favourite plants in his school’s Indigenous plant-use garden. Jarrah begins digging a hole but is struggling to break the ground. Adam arrives at the site to investigate. “What are you doing Jarrah? If you’re struggling to dig a hole, how do you think that poor little plant is going to grow in that ground? Come on, let’s slow down, take a seat and make a bit of a plan and assess the site first! We want our plants to thrive. This knowledge will be important to share with other young ones in years to come.”

ACTIVITY OVERVIEW

This activity involves assessment and mapping of local environments to create a successful and thriving Indigenous plant-use garden.

To understand local perspectives and support these activities, we recommend reaching out to the local Traditional Owners and First Nations peoples community groups who can assist in knowledge sharing and understanding local land, histories and culture. This is an important consideration to ensure that any reconciliation initiatives are being driven in a local, meaningful way.

This learning activity is the fourth part of a sequence of 6 individual learning activities focused on creating an Indigenous plant-use garden. The order of these learning activities are: resources from the bush, vision, plant list, site assessment, planting and harvesting.

Outcomes

For children to:

  • understand the importance of assessing local environments to create successful gardens
  • learn planning, assessment and mapping skills
  • learn how to choose the right plants for the right location, climate and season consolidate their learnings from completing previous learning activities.
SEASONAL NOTES

This activity can be undertaken any time of the year. However, exploring your outdoor environment will need to account for the different variations in temperature and climate conditions. The location of the sun and shade will vary according to the time of day and the season.

Did you know?

Native plants require a different type of soil relative to common vegetable and fruit plants. It is important to investigate your existing soil type.

Did you know?

Native plants can suffer if watered frequently. Is your site prone to being very wet or have a lot of water run off? This can bring competition in the form of weeds to your native plants.

Did you know?

Choosing native plants that are native to an area will provide the best results, e.g. Lemon Myrtle is originally a sub-tropical rainforest plant from the Queensland region. If you try to grow it in an open, exposed, frosty site in cool parts of South East Australia, it will struggle to survive.

Did you know?

Weeds love to grow on disturbed or overused ground. Many weeds grow well in hard compacted ground, aerating the soil with a pitchfork before planting will help your new garden grow.

Why not try one of our other Junior Landcare learning activities?

Creating an Indigenous plant-use garden: plant list

First Nations Perspectives

Creating an Indigenous plant-use garden: resources from the bush

First Nations Perspectives

Love Letters to the Land

Biodiversity|First Nations Perspectives|Food Production|Waste Management

Creating a yarning circle: involving First Nations people

First Nations Perspectives