The Rooftop Garden Quest

In the Rooftop Garden Quest, we had to make a rooftop garden reduce global warming and sell any produce we got. Our first move was to collect mandarin trees. As Chinese New Year was nearly over, any discarded mandarin trees were collected by students and teachers and placed onto the roof. Some science teachers then bought seeds of every kind- Radishes, Capsicum, Beans, Basil, Oregano, Flowers and Parsley and planted them in pots, but as we were running short of pots, some cups were used as a temporary measure. Mr. Chiu then decided that they needed more helping hands up on the roof, so in Tutor Period, students of 9D helped out with the garden.

There were lots of jobs to choose from: transplanting, watering, weeding, trimming the trees, and some brave students set out on a 1-week quest to annihilate every caterpillar that was unfortunate enough to be discovered by sharp, keen eyes. But waste not, want not: the caterpillars were not killed on the spot; they were kept until after school, where turtle owning students took them home and fed them to their pets.

Soil had to be mixed up and ploughed as well, and students had to mix soil of all varieties together and to ensure that it was well mixed; students had to plunge their hands into the messy gunk and mix it up.

Although the work was hard and the tasks messy, the rooftop garden was, and still is, a major success. Now the pests are gone and the peas (which had been planted first) are already starting to bloom.

Author: Jade Kim

Editor: Austin Liew

Tags: rooftop, garden, plants, global warming, environment, environmental action group