What’s Been Happening in Term 1, 2024?

This term it was the students from Hopukiore and Mauao who joined me in the gardens on Tuesdays, with keen beans from other classrooms coming at lunchtimes too.

After a wonderfully sunny,  but dry summer, we started off term 1 with seed saving.  The dry weather had created the perfect conditions for us to collect seed.  We gathered all sorts; broccoli, kale, snapdragons, sunflower seed and more!  Then we popped them in envelopes and labelled them before storing them in our seed box in the shed for use next season.

It was also a term for some good harvests. We got lots of delicious tomatoes, some spuddies and so much pumpkin. The tomatoes were eaten on the spot, the spuds taken home, and the pumpkins divvied up for the kai cart..  But the one they loved most was popping the corn they grew in the shadehouse, yum!! 

Our big project this term has been completing the beautiful pathways between the beds in the sensory gardens.  We used salvaged house bricks, and bark mulch and pumice from Te Puke Landscape Supplies, the idea being that it gives the tamariki different sensory experiences underfoot. 

Initially I wasn’t convinced we would be able to do a good enough job…

 ..but our gardeners were amazing!  They planned, measured, designed the brick layout and did all the hard mahi.  They lugged bricks from the shed and dug out weeds as well as moving barrow loads of mulch and pumice.  We are so proud of what these amazing tamariki have achieved!!  Well done team!!