Meeting with CETDEM (11/1/11)

Two representatives from CETDEM came to our school to further assist us in the establishment of our Organic Vegetable Garden. The meeting was joined by Puan Yeo, our teacher advisor. The main agenda of their visit was to survey the spot we had in mind for the location of the vegetable garden, which was initially a spot behind Block D, where there was a large plot of unused land. The problem with that spot, however, was the fact that it hardly received any sunlight, whereas the plot of land beside our school’s surau did. Hence, it was decided that our vegetable garden would be situated beside our school’s surau.

Once we decided on the location of our vegetable garden, we determined the size it would be. Taking factors such as the availability of land and the amount of vegetables we would plant into consideration, it was decided that our vegetable garden would span between 5.2m x 4m and 6m x 4m. The garden would consist of two walkways sandwiched between three garden beds.

After deciding on the size of our garden, the representatives then told us about the measures we would have to take before planting anything in our vegetable garden. We would have to remove the grass from our garden site until the top layer of soil is exposed, and keep the removed grass to be used later on as ‘sabut’, which would hinder the growth of weeds. We would then have to use a hoe to loosen the soil of our garden site, before covering the loosened soil with a sheet of plastic or any other form of waterproof material which would prevent water from coming into contact with the soil. After completing these first few stages of the establishment of our vegetable garden, we would have another meeting with CETDEM to talk about what we would have to do next in order to make our vegetable garden a success.

CETDEM also suggested that we write sponsorship letters to hardware stores to attempt to garner sponsorship for the tools we would require for the setting up and maintenance of our vegetable garden. We should also start collecting dry leaves to be used later on as ‘sabut’ for our vegetable garden.

As the meeting came to a close, we exchanged contact details with CETDEM so as to contact them should we have any enquiries. The manner in which this project would be carried out would be a world of difference as opposed to the way we carried out our Herbs Garden project, because unlike the way it was with the Herbs Garden project, we had the aid of people well-equipped with knowledge in the field of organic farming. We learnt many things from these people, such as techniques we should apply in loosening soil and the best way to plant different vegetables. We managed to gleam many bits of useful information from the CETDEM representatives, and are truly blessed to have their help.