O’Maley Soda Bottle Garden From Roger Davis

Roger Davis Submits

Last Friday, the O’Maley Middle School cafeteria served lettuce in its salad bar… and students actually ate some!  The real news is that this lettuce was grown by the sixth grade students of Island House… in the school library!  Under the direction of science teacher Roger Davis, the students created planters out of two-liter soda bottles, linked together in a siphon-fed watering system.  A three-liter bottle supplies the whole class’s set of lettuce planters, and the siphon passes the water from one planter to the next.  The plants absorb the water by cappilary action, so the plants never need to be watered.  With the garden and water all held in these containers, the lettuce bed was set in the school library, whose large sunroof gives the plants plenty of light.  Six weeks later, the students harvested the first cutting, with more still to come.  With this project students are learning basic plant science, indoor or container gardening techniques, and the principles of water and air pressure used in the siphon water system.  Seeds and soil for this project were donated to the school by Wolf Hill Garden Center.