Soil searching

O Mary, we crown thee

The feast of the Crowning of Our Lady is a long-standing tradition at St Edward’s College, indeed in all Catholic schools in Malta. Thankfully, this year the College had a more ‘normal’ Crowning ceremony as the Covid restrictions were lifted and the boys could participate as a school and sing out loudly as our Chaplain, Fr Manuel Camilleri Rodo led the celebration of Mass.

Testing the soil

By Dean Galea Pellicano

On Friday 13th May, the year 12 ESS students conducted a simple but very telling soil experiment to observe the composition of the soil found at college. After an outdoor lesson on irrigation, planting and soil fertility properties, the students scooped up a handful of soil and placed them in glass jars, closing them off with a lid.

Back in the laboratory they added water, just enough to submerge the soil, and shook the jar to mix and break up the soil. The jars were left for 24h so as to let the heavier soil particles sink in and have a clear distinction between three different layers of soil components; sand, silt and clay.

Through observation and analysis the students concluded that the approximate soil composition found at college is 70% sand, 2% silt and 28% clay, which is termed as Sandy Clay Loam, which is ideal for small scale cultivation of potatoes, onions and carrots, but not considered very fertile soil. Through research they discovered that these are common crops planted in Malta, since local soil is conductive to the crowing of these crops. In fact, our gardener, Joe, already plants some of these crops with good yields.