Mad and Messy March

With activities, camps and, eventually the Covid-19 lockdown, March turned into a messy month but when we did get into the gardens, WOW, we worked hard.

Block 1

All these tamariki were with the programme last year. We talked about what we needed to do to start a garden – the students all said “Whaea Clare, we know”, so she said, “Go for it!”

Clare had seedlings, but the group decided they wanted to start from seed. They said the plants would grow stronger than if they used transplanted seedlings. We talked about observing your garden – seeing the changes, checking the sunlight, looking at your soil and seeing what the plants are doing.

Seeds sprouting.

By the following week the seeds were sprouting so we carefully watered them with diluted worm pee fertiliser. Then the beautiful compost from Revitial arrived and our gardeners decided to dilute that before applying it to their seedlings too. Diluting both of these sources of nutrition was important – we didn’t want to overwhelm such tiny plants with too many nutrients.

Rich and beautiful compost from Revital.

We also started looking into the area that we were going to do some landscaping in. Once again we talked about observing the area first. Do kids come and play here? Where is the sunlight? Is there a natural pathway? This is going to be a fascinating project.

Block 2

Hardly any of the tamariki in this group had done any gardening before – what an exciting learning adventure they are about to start!

Ms Barr and Whaea Clare began by explaining how to turn the soil and add nutrients into the gardens. They talked about the benefits of seaweed. One group got Ms Barr’s food scraps and learned how to ‘trench’. We looked at compost and worm bins, both great, free ways of recycling food and garden waste into nutrition for our gardens.

‘Trenching’

We also had fun getting the sprinkler system working and talking about how to save water over summer. We planted some seedlings into the bins – learning to soak them first in seaweed juice, worm pee or even just water, if that’s all there is available (here’s why we do it!).

Our least favourite thing was weeding and maintenance of the gardens – Whaea Clare explained that if we mulched the gardens this would be less of a worry.

February 2020

What a start to the term – we had 63 students sign up for garden club! As we only have space for 30 kids at a time we have decided to have the Year 8’s for the first two terms, then the Year 7’s for the following two. If the Year 8’s would like to continue through the second half of the year then they can come and mentor the year 7’s.

When Whaea Clare went to see the gardens after Christmas she re-named them ‘The Jungle’. We had a mixture of weeds and food plants everywhere. She put out a SOS to see who would like to tidy up, and… well… everyone turned up. What was meant to be a cleanup exercise turned into a “how many bean seeds can we collect?” challenge. We looked at how different the various varieties of bean were, and were they dwarf beans or tall ones? Some of the brave kids ate them.

The bean collection

We started a bean count but we lost track. Let’s just say there were enough that 100 students at Arataki doing the bean in a pot experiment and 60 students at Tahatai doing the bean in the bag experiment all used these beans and there were still some left over for Whaea Clare to plant next spring!

All sorts of beans!

The other thing we found in ‘The Jungle’ was tomatoes. A lot were still green and the new students coming into the gardens didn’t want them, so Ms Barr took them and made green tomato relish. Well it was the best relish we have tasted. Whaea Clare took it home and it was gone by the end of the weekend.

We also looked around the school and talked about areas we can redesign and do some landscaping in. It’s looking like a busy and fun two terms.

Tomato harvest (and a couple more things).

Carrot Capers

This month at the Mount Intermediate gardens it’s all been about the almighty CARROT.

It all started in Term 2 when two boys decided to plant half their patch in carrots. The following week our gardeners went to visit Matua John who runs the gardens at Mount College. He’d just been showing his students how to transplant carrots using two lollipop sticks. Our gardeners were able to learn this technique from Matua John, and also had the chance to taste some carrots that he’d sown a few weeks ago. Everyone was immediately hooked – they said store bought carrots weren’t nearly as sweet and crunchy as these ‘real’ ones.

After this experience it was all on in the Mount Intermediate gardens. Who could grow the best carrot?

The two boys shared some of their carrot seedlings with the other Year 8 gardeners, and Whaea Clare also gave everyone some seeds. It was a flurry of planting using Matua John’s method.

Week by week our gardeners kept an eagle eye on their seedlings, checking to see how they were doing and feeding them with worm wee. Half decided to thin out their carrot seedlings while the others left them as they were. 

It’s now five weeks on. Since the first carrots appeared our gardeners have been eating them from the garden every day. Those that had been thinned out grew a lot bigger than the ones that hadn’t, and the ones that hadn’t grew into some funny shapes (we guess this is because there was some overcrowding going on underground). Many of the poor carrots were eaten way too early but nobody minded. Everybody has loved coming into the garden club and having ‘morning tea’ of carrots every day, taking them home and sharing them with their families, and measuring them to see whose were the biggest (the winner will be announced in the middle of Term 4 when all of the carrots have finished growing).

Who knew that carrots could be exciting?! Watch out Mount College, these year 8s will be taking over your plots very soon!

Seedy Surprise

Today we were cleaning out the Year 7 garden and we noticed loads of tiny tomato seedlings scattered throughout the garden. Where on earth were they coming from? We hadn’t planted any tomato plants lately! We found our answer when we spotted this decomposing tomato lying in the garden. We concluded that the seeds from unharvested tomatoes were getting enough water, shelter and nourishment from the rotting tomatoes to germinate. Isn’t nature amazing!

Last week Clare asked our gardeners to bring in something they could recycle to turn into planter boxes.  Today one student brought in this converted pallet, which she’s going to plant out with strawberries, lettuces, poppies (her Dad’s favourite) and other seeds. We will attach it to the fence in the garden club so she can work on it. What a great idea.

Seeding, Feeding, Collecting and Tidying

Autumn is here and it’s time to finish harvesting our summer produce. That includes our sunflowers! Today we were busy de-seeding the big flower that the bees were so busy on a couple of weeks ago. We have given some seeds to the hungry birds, and as for the rest – some will be saved for the gardens next year, some are for selling and some are for us to take home. We can eat them or save them, the choice is ours.

We also wanted to make some plant food for our winter garden beds, so we made compost ‘tea’. This tea is not for us to drink – no THANK YOU! – it contains horse poo, sheep poo, comfrey, grass clippings (and some of our morning tea)! But it will be just great for our gardens. We learnt how organic matter like this helps feed the soil which in turn grows stronger vegetables.  

As well as harvesting and soil feeding, autumn is a time to tidy up the garden, there are the old summer plants to clear away, along with loads of summer weeds. So we had plenty of work to do and plenty to put into the compost bins.

The Year 8s have been trying out different ways they can harness the rainwater for their gardens. Here’s what we have at the moment:

Happy to Bee in the Garden

As we were weeding our gardens today we saw this bee collecting nectar from one of our giant sunflowers. For once we were very quiet and more bees flew over… thank you bees, for all the hard work you do for our gardens.

The Seedling Market Story

Here’s the story of our Seedling Market and how our community came together to help…

Our four member schools had been planning a combined seedling market to be held just after the school holidays. We wanted to share our produce, and even more importantly our ideas, with our local community, and show them what we’d been learning and growing. We invited our neighbour school, St Thomas More, to have a stall too.

We had all been growing different plants from seed for a few weeks and Whaea Heidi from PiPS had organised for us to hold the sale at Arataki Park on Saturday. She did a lot of work to arrange it all, and other stalls like a coffee cart, bike repair stall, sausage sizzle and live music too.

But then a few things happened. Whaea Clare had to take some time off work for family reasons and there was a drought over the holidays. The result of these combined factors was that for most of our schools, our carefully nurtured seedlings died over the school holidays.

After all the work Heidi did organising and publicising the market she wasn’t going to give in! She put the word out and all sorts of people and organisations including the Mt College horticulture class and Good Neighbour came to the rescue, donating plants and produce to replace what we’d lost. In the end the market was able to go ahead, and despite some very cold and showery ‘spring’ weather it was a real success. In some ways it was even more of a success than if our plants hadn’t died because the generosity and help we got from others helped to form some great relationships.

Thank you to everyone who donated time or produce to help make it such a success against the odds, to the kids who helped out with selling, to Mrs Robertson and Mrs Taylor for all their mahi, and of course a very big pakipaki to Heidi and Clare.

PS: We were so busy selling and chatting that we forgot to take many photos! So you will just have to trust us that it was a great morning :)

Trip to Kereru Gardens

We were out and about today, which was pretty exciting. Our first stop was Kereru Gardens plant nursery out in Pyes Pa. Our job was to choose some plants for the school which we have been awarded through the Paper for Trees programme, and we each got to pick a plant.

We also learnt how Kereru Gardens propagate their plants and how they choose which ones to grow.

And we tried a fruit that none of us had ever eaten before – Mexican lime. It was VERY sour!

On the way back to school we popped into Palmers Welcome Bay to pick up the Year 8’s fruit trees that they are going to plant in the school orchard.

Wicking Bed Day

Today was a big day – we got to fill our brand new wicking beds! What are wicking beds, you ask? Read all about them here.

Our wicking beds have been made possible with the help of lots of people and several generous organisations. They are: TECT, who gave PiPS a grant to build the beds: Fonterra Grass Roots Fund, who also gave us a grant: Good Neighbour, who organised the whole project, built the beds, ran today’s working bee, supplied food AND volunteer workers to help us: and Daltons, who donated all the compost and mulch to fill the beds. And don’t forget the staff, students and Clare our Garden Facilitator.

Thank you to everyone who has made this project possible.

Here’s a step-by-step account of how we did it.

Here are the empty beds, ready for filling. We have three beds each 4m long x 1m wide – that’s a lot of new planting space! The beds were delivered in sections yesterday, and volunteers from Good Neighbour came and put them together and set them into place.

The first step today was to line each bed with plastic. Normally we’d like to have the earth in a raised bed in contact with the ground, so moisture, beneficial creatures and microbes could move between them, but because we want this bed to retain water, we need to seal it off.

We taped the plastic around the top edge of the bed, and paid special attention to folding the corners so the whole liner is sitting neat and flat. We made holes in the sides of the plastic liner that corresponded with holes in the metal sides of the bed (you can see them in some of the other photos). These provide emergency drainage for the times when we have too much rain, to prevent the bed from flooding.

We then prepared the pipe that’s going to run along the bottom of the bed. The pipe has holes in it. This is what will hold and distribute the water to our plants.

The pipe got wrapped with frost cloth, which was taped on tightly. The frost cloth will prevent the holes in the pipe getting blocked with dirt and sand, but will still allow water to permeate through. We sealed off one end of the pipe with tape but left the other end open.

We carefully laid the pipe down the centre of the bed, making sure the open end came up to the top of the box.

When the pipe was in place we covered it with sand.

Then we put a 20cm layer of mulch on top of the sand.

This was also a good point to add any other compostable plant matter we had lying around.

We toppd the mulch layer with a sprinkling of lime. Lime will help the mulch decompose.

Then we added a layer of pea straw on top of the mulch. Pea straw adds nitrogen to the mix, which is really important to help our plants grow strong, healthy leaves.

Next we put 20cm of compost on top of the pea straw.

…and a dusting of blood and bone on top of that. The blood and bone adds a lot of nutrients to the soil, which will help our plants grow strongly.

And we continued with more layers of mulch and lime, and compost and blood and bone, until the bed was really full and mounded up in the middle. As the air is compressed out of the mix the filling will settle and sink down.

We then put the hose into the pipe for about half an hour. The water will seep from the pipe and into the bottom of the bed. The roots of our seedlings will grow downwards, seeking the water. This means our plants will develop deep, strong roots and also that we won’t lose water to evaporation, which is what happens when we water our plants on the surface of the soil. 

Then we got to plant our seedlings.

We added more mulch around them.

What a team!

Thank you again to everyone who helped us. These beds will be an asset not just for our school and students, but for our whole community for many years to come.

Harvest Time!

There was a lot of excitement today – we were in harvest mode.  We felt it was a pretty good achievement to have grown amazing vegetables like this cauliflower from tiny seeds. 

Making Yakon Syrup

After watching a video about how to make yakon syrup we decided to have a go using the yakons we’ve grown in our garden.

We peeled, cut and juiced the yakons then simmered them in a bit of water. They need to simmer overnight so Mrs Taylor will take them home and see what happens…

And in more exciting news… We got the OK to plant the orchard AND to build the plastic bottle greenhouse today! 

For the orchard, we started making a plan and a list of the trees we want to plant.

We worked out the measurements of the greenhouse so the school can approach Placemakers and Bunnings and see if they’ll donate some timber for the framing, and we’ll ask the community to provide the plastic bottles.

Matariki Week

Matariki was traditionally a time for remembrance, celebration and fertility for Maori people, so it was a day for us to celebrate today too. The appearance of the Matariki stars also helped Maori decide when to plant their spring crops:

“The coming season’s crops were planted according to the portents read in the Matariki star cluster. If the stars were clear and bright, it was a sign that a favourable and productive season lay ahead, and planting would begin in September. If the stars appeared hazy and closely bunched together, a cold winter was in store and planting was put off until October.”

In keeping with tradition Block 1 made their plan for our summer planting. Now we’ll need get up before dawn this week to see what the Matariki stars look like, so we can figure out when to plant these crops this coming spring!

In the meantime we planted a mandarin tree into a pot in the garden club to celebrate. These gardeners are in Year 7, so will still be here next winter to eat the mandarins it will hopefully produce, which is a good incentive to look after the tree well!

Block 2 also planted a citrus tree, a generous thing to do for future students at the school, while Stephen and Josiah added a hebe. They worked as a team sharing the responsibility of planting it, said a karakia over it and were justifiably very proud of their mahi.

Planting for Winter

Today we filled the gaps in the garden beds with more seedlings to keep us going through the winter months. We also took care of the beds by weeding, watering, fertilising and mulching them, and planted up the no dig bed with broad beans and lettuce.

Oh, and check. out our super healthy worm farm…

Jacob made his own soil blocks. He used seed raising mix, worm wee and seaweed fertiliser.

Eating What We Grow

Before Food techonogy today Mrs Taylor harvested all this produce from the garden. The Block 1 class cooked with the vegetables that the gardening club grew. We felt so proud of ourselves and we’re sure the veges tasted extra good today :)

Progress on Jacob’s Garden

Before and After – the garden eight weeks ago, and the garden today.

Look how Jacobs garden is progressing! The different coloured silverbeet looks beautiful. Jacob is starting to sow some seeds now for his next lot of veges.

No Dig Garden

We had a spare kiwifruit bin and the Block 1 boys decided it would be good to turn it into more growing space, so we did some research and decided on trying a No Dig garden.

No Dig gardens are perfect for spaces where the soil isn’t good, eg: sandy or clay, because you are creating a layer of rich growing medium on top of what’s already there. As the straw breaks down over time it helps to enrich the soil underneath, so it’s a great way to build up and improve your soil. It’s also good for people who can’t bend down, because you are building the garden upwards.

We put the straw into the bin, spread it out, wet it and then started ‘conditioning’ it with potash, sheep pellets amd worm castings to provide nutrients for the plants we will put in there.

During the week our gardeners will continue to keep the straw damp and add more sheep pellets and blood and bone. Watch this space ...

Thank You Tui Garden!

Tui Garden have once again been really generous to our PiPS member schools and donated a whole pile of potting mix and seed raising mix. This will be such a help to us through the year. Thank you Tui Garden!

Baking and Sharing

Today was all about sharing and getting to know each other.

Because it was raining Block 1 and 2 combined together and went into the kitchen to bake herb scones, using the parsley, oregano and chives we grew in the garden. It was fun cooking with something we grew ourselves and the scones tasted fantastic. Block 1 also got to try the rose petal tea that is Block 2’s specialty, and we came up with ideas of other herbs that we could make tea with too.

The rain stopped near the end of the session so we were able to go out to the gardens together and compare notes about what we were growing and how everything was going.

Today made us realise that this is one of the cool things about being gardeners – having gardening as a common interest is a great way to get to know other people.

Our scone recipe, if you would like to try it. 

The Rain Gets Things Growing

It was raining today so we stayed indoors and did some planning for our orchard. Out in the garden the rain was doing the work for us. Look how well our plants are growing.

And look at our seedlings in the pots – we can’t believe that seeds we sowed just two weeks ago are already this big. After Easter these will be transplanted into our gardens or shared with others – maybe some of the other PiPS schools will want some for their gardens?

The Story of Jacob and Jack’s Garden

Beside the caretaker’s office was a strip of empty land. It was sheltered, it was sunny, it was a great place to grow things, but all it was growing was grass. Clare and Mrs Taylor thought it would be a good spot to make a garden for Jacob and Jack, two of our most dedicated gardeners who come out every lunchtime to work in the gardens.

Jacob and Jack were keen to have their very own space, but before they started digging they had to think hard about what they needed do to make the garden work. They realised the soil here very is sandy and nothing would grow well in it if they left it the way it was. So they added some compost. Clare also mentioned that making a clay slurry would help to bind the sand – Clare will get some clay in a few weeks when it’s properly autumn and there’s more moisture in the ground and they will add it in then.

Jacob and Jack discussed with Clare which would be suitable plants to put into the garden at this time of the year, and talked about how wind, sun and rain will affect the different plants.

Finally, once all the planning and preparation was done, the carefully chosen seedlings were planted, with a protective layer of pea straw mulch added around them.

Watch this space to follow the progress of this brand new garden!

The grass dug up, edging added, and the compost going in.

Seedlings being planted and mulch being added.