Nurturing charitable nature

The Hamilton Hill-based school spent six weeks preparing a site of about 70sqm before the first plants were put in place on Friday as part of Planet Ark’s National Tree Day.

Principal Michael Ashton said produce grown at the school would be donated to Fremantle charity Manna, which offers meals to the community’s most disadvantaged. The first crops should be harvested within two months.

Mr Ashton said the school had several smaller gardens that had been worked into the curriculum.

“It’s about promoting the value of volunteering and helping out others in the community,” he said.

National Tree Day started in 1996.

In 2015, close to 300,000 people planted more than 1.2 million native trees, shrubs and edibles at sites across Australia.