Good news! We have established another Miyawaki forest at Woodland Star International School in Limuru successfully!
In early March of 2023 Miti Alliance in collaboration with The Center for Ecosystem Restoration(CERK) and SUGI were able establish a pocket forest working together with students from Woodland Star International School and Tigoni Primary School.
The team set up a Miyawaki forest occupying 400m2 and housing 1,200 tree of 73 native species. The project engaged both Woodland Star students(Private) and Tigoni Primary (Public) students in the implementation process. The goal was to enable the students to understand biodiversity and various techniques of restoration.
The students joined in to learn beginning from the set up days. On Day 1, we dug up the demarcated land using an earthmover and mixed the soil with different components (manure, soil improver and wheat grass) to add nutrients and air spaces to the soil. The students from both schools were quite ecstatic to tear up bags of manure and play around with bales of wheat.
Compost tea
Compost tea can be compared to healthy juice for the plants to make them healthier.It is a liquid made of water and compost which contains nutrients and microbes. It improves soil fertility, can be used as a substitute for manure or fertilizer, and boosts plant health.
On day 2, our activity was Compost tea making day. Touching cow poop was however not so fun for some kids.
The ingredients used to make the compost tea were ;
- Cow manure,
- Cow urine,
- Jaggerry,
- Gram Flour,
- Water – 60L.
The susbstances were mixed in a 100L tank and covered tightly.The compost tea is to be kept for 7 days before being applied on the soil so that the micro-organisms will have multiplied.
On Day 3, various tree species were selected, color coded and set aside according to the species and area to be planted .The Miyawaki forest planting technique is based on planting a canopy, tree layer and shrub in 1m2 .
Planting day finally came; the students planted the trees and applied mulch with the guidance of the team on how to do it right. The trees were dipped in compost tea before planting and the rest was sprayed on the trees after planting.
On Day 5 we completed the tree planting sessions with the students at Woodland Star. We are thrilled to have not only have planted 1200 trees at Woodland Star School but also educated the students on forest restoration.
By having this forest, the students will have an accessible learning hub to monitor biodiversity systems and record the existing species of birds and insects that will progressively move in to the forest.
Big thanks to the team for successful implementation, we look forward to the trees establishing and growing to be full grown forest in the next 20 years.
To learn more about how to setup your own Miyawaki forest, please checkout out our blog post here.