MMI School Gardens Term 2, 2024
The gardeners at MMI have put in some great work this term.
And they are already reaping the harvest of their hard work last term. Their gardens are abundant and nearly every week, they are taking food home, from healthy heads of chinese cabbage to bunches of herbs and silverbeet. The girls did some good work gathering leaf mulch, helping Brendan out, by keeping the place tidy while also providing for the compost!
The gardeners’ whānau and teachers benefit too, when they bring posies of fresh flowers back to class. Some even decorated upcycled pots of flowers to take home as Mothers’ Day gifts!
The wet days were also put to use. We spent time in room 30, where we did some seed saving, using the dried seed heads we had collected from the gardens in the summer. The gardeners made clever paper envelopes from old exercise books and labelled the seeds for storage, so that we can use them in the gardens next term.
We spent time making banana tea fertiliser too, to feed our seedlings.
We have some great artists in the garden too, who enjoyed making signage for their garden beds. On one wet Wednesday, we learned about the wonders of leaves, and their jobs as solar panels for the plants, harnessing energy from the sun, to convert into food for the plants and ultimately feeding us too. The gardeners then used leaves from the garden to make some watercolour art prints to take home.
A very healthy basil plant in our herb garden prompted a food prep session. We gathered basil, parsley, miners’ lettuce and lemons from the garden to make a delicious garden herb pesto, which didn’t last long!
In the last week of term, our year 8 gardeners had a wonderful opportunity to visit the school gardens at Mount Maunganui College where some of them will study next year. John Devery, who looks after the horticulture department, shared his passion for gardening with us and it was amazing to see him in action. He told us that since he started the programme, they have been responsible for planting over 40,000 native trees in Tauranga and the surrounding areas. And it’s not for profit! They are working for the planet, one tree at a time! John also prepares the students for careers in the horticulture industry. We were very grateful to him for the warm welcome we received.
