Term 3 in our Garden

We are beyond thrilled to have a warm (hot!) and dry space to work in on those windy and rainy days, a place where we can raise seedlings and even get a head start with summer crops!

The greenhouse was built on a cold and wet weekend by Oceanside Builds and we couldn’t be happier with the space. By the end of the term we have a wide variety of summer vegetables and flowers sprouting which should be ready to go into the garden after the holidays.

For the first time we are growing our own kumara tipu, which is the offshoots that grow from one of the previous seasons’ kumara. We saved four of our biggest kumara from earlier in the year and set two in water, and two buried in a mix of pumice and top soil to see which ones grow the best tipu. Already there is lots of healthy foliage, and hopefully lots of healthy roots!

We have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of a leafcutter bee kit which arrived this term! It was so interesting looking at the little cocoons made purely from leaf circles that the female bees cut to house their egg. We did a fun activity making finger puppet bees, drawing flowers and then pretending to be bees! Each flower had a little bit of “pollen” in it, in the form of sprinkles, sugar, desiccated coconut etc, and these little bees with a touch of honey on their finger buzzed around collecting pollen from each other's flowers…. (Yum!). The leaf cutter bee nest has been attached to the outside of the greenhouse, at the start of term 4 the cocoons will be put into it and within a few weeks we should see leaf cutter bees pollinating our real flowers!

It has been a term of projects, and one of the favourites was the creation of ‘Cupcake’ the toddler scarecrow. Cupcake was made by Manawa Hau Kotahi using soft plastic recycling to stuff their limbs and body. We decided the most important garden that needed protecting from birds was of course the strawberry garden! In the future we will add some ribbons from Cupcakes arms that will flap about and help deter the birds.

Lots to do in Autumn

As we approach the cooler months of the year plant growth starts to slow down in the garden, despite this there is still plenty to do! May is a good time to get garlic into the ground. Before planting them the bulbs were kept in the fridge for a week to give them that winter chill that they love and then soaked overnight in a weak seaweed fertiliser solution to give them a strong head start. This year we planted elephant garlic and printanor varieties which should be ready to harvest in summer.

Along with garlic, we planted out plenty of brassicas such as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, and brussel sprouts. Before planting we would top up the garden beds with a good amount of garden soil from Te Puke Landscapes which is full of vermicast (worm poo!) which will help our plants to grow big and strong. BUT, oh no, big problem! Lots of our plants were getting eaten!! The culprits…. Slugs slugs and more slugs (and some snails). Luckily kaimanawa are fantastic slug hunters, daily slug removal has been a great help.

We had a special opportunity with the year 5 kaitiaki leaders to visit Te Rae o Pāpāpmoa (Pāpāmoa hills) to learn from local iwi representative, Whaea Aroha, about the history of the area and the importance of the native plants growing there. Together we collected seeds from Manuka, Koromiko, Whau and Karamu. Later in the term after they had time to properly dry out we sorted the seeds from the husks and sowed them into seed trays with the hope that in the future we can plant them back at Te Rae o Pāpāmoa and around school.

A big thank you Whaea Lindsay for teaching Te Manawa o Pāpāmoa students for two weeks while Whaea Leela was away. What an awesome experience they got, getting to look through a microscope to see the structure of different plants, saving flower seeds and planting out a new flower garden! Nga mihi nui!

Some other things we got up to... 

- Harakeke stars for Matariki. 

- Learning about NZ native birds in preparation for the NZ Garden Bird Survey. 

- Eating produce from the garden. 

- Flower garden planted out with whaea Lindsay. 

- Garden produce for the community in the Pātaka Kai. 

Harvesting and Cooking

Term one has been an exciting one particularly for harvesting produce and cooking with it. In week six of term four last year, we planted out kumara tupu. They happily grew over summer and by the time we came back to school in February there was plenty of lush foliage. In week five the kumara was ready to be harvested, Mataatua had the privilege of digging them up and boy were they rewarded! We learnt that kumara need to be dug out carefully as they break easily and won’t store well if broken. Kaimanawa pretended they were archaeologists carefully digging out old fossils!

We weighed all our kumara, the biggest weighed in at a whooping 560 grams! All up we harvested 14.8 kgs. To store the kumara, we wrapped each one individually with newspaper. We will save a few of the biggest to grow tupu (the rooted shoots that grow off the parent kumara) for planting in the garden in term four, and so the cycle will begin again.

Some groups of Kaimanawa had the opportunity to cook with the kumara we grew. We learnt safe knife practices and did our best to cut the kumara into even pieces. All that was needed was a little oil and salt and into a hot oven… before long we got to enjoy kumara chips! So yum! Not a single chip was left uneaten!

This was our first summer with a functioning garden and the reward was cooking with school grown produce! During learning through play Takitimu harvested vegetables and the following day we made a delicious pasta sauce. The sauce was made up of onion, garlic, carrots, zucchini, beetroot and cherry tomatoes. Such a proud moment for Kaimanawa to experience growing and cooking their own food.

Kia mau tonu te mahi!

Term 4 2023 – One Year In…

…and look where we are now!

We have had a busy and exciting term four. Once again we have been generously supported by businesses and community members who have helped develop our garden space. In week one Phillip and Miguel from Avocado New Zealand came to school with five donated avocado trees. They worked with us showing us how to plant them and put up wind cloth barriers around each tree. We are lucky that they will continue to support us to keep these trees happy and healthy.

Continuing with the theme of donations TopLine Carpenters built five picnic tables, which were generously funded by local community groups, the current board of trustees and TopLine Carpenters themselves. It has been great to have a space where we can sit to sow seeds, pot up seedlings, enjoy kai and do projects!

One such project was making pots out of tin cans to sell seedlings at the Christmas picnic. Every student in the class got to use a hammer and nail to make drainage holes in their can, fill it with pumice and soil and then sow a seed. It was great seeing Te Ara Rua’s creativity with decorating the cans, they looked awesome!

Every group had a go at cooking kale chips this term, and every time it was hugely popular with every crumb being eaten! We also had a go at making green smoothies and broadbean dip.

Other important mahi was pulling out our garlic which has been growing since June, and harvesting calendula seed and drying calendula flowers - maybe we can try making a balm with them next year?!

Just before the end of the school year we were thrilled to learn that our container which will be our garden shed was going to be arriving! This is so exciting and so necessary as the classroom space we had been storing all our tools for the year is going to be filled with kai manawa next year. 

It has been an incredible year seeing what was an empty space in term one, turn into a huge and functional garden where students have all had the opportunity to experience and learn the joys of gardening. Together we have achieved so much, I look forward to seeing what we can achieve and learn in 2024!

Term 3 2023 – Fruit Trees!

Earlier in the year Whaea Zarna put a list of fruit trees we wanted for our garden space and for the beginning of a food forest out to staff and school whānau asking for tree sponsorship. We were blown away when they all sold in two days! In term two, whānau who purchased a feijoa or citrus tree were invited to come to school and plant their trees. This term the time was right to plant the deciduous trees and the opportunity was extended to the remaining whānau to be involved.

After karakia, kai manawa and whānau were instructed on where and how to plant their tree. This involved mixing soil dug out of each hole with compost, and ensuring the hole was the right depth for the tree. Once the tree was carefully removed from its pot or bag and placed in the hole, the remaining soil and compost needed to be filled in and firmed down. The trees were then given a generous drink of water to help reduce the transplant shock, a sprinkle of sheep and chicken manure pellets were sprinkled around the soil, and finally the soil was covered by a thick layer of mulch. The mulch is to help retain moisture and to prevent grass and weeds growing. It is important to remember when putting mulch around your trees to pull it back from the trunk a bit as the mulch can cause the tree trunk to rot.

In the following weeks kai manawa have planted flower seedlings and sprinkled mixed flower seeds around the base of each tree. Flowers under fruit trees act as a living mulch, encourage beneficial insects and improve the interconnected biodiversity. Using donated pre-loved wind cloth and stakes we have put up a wind shelter around each tree which will protect it from the strong coastal winds in the early years of growth.

We are grateful to Commercial Signs in Mount Maunganui for kindly designing and donating a sign for each tree.

To date these are the trees we have planted:

2x Mandarin

2x Orange

6x Feijoa

2x Lemon

2x Lime

2x Grapefruit

Cherry

4x Apple

Peach

Fig

Apricot

Nectarine

Nashi

2x Pear

3x Plum

4x Blueberry

Persimmon

Term 2, 2023: Yay, We Have Gardens In Action!

Term Two started with a hiss and a roar. We had a hugely successful working bee at the end of week one where 25 whanau groups and community members helped to line and fill the garden beds in record time.

Which meant that the following week we could start planting out our seedlings grown the previous term. By week 10 we harvested mesculin, rocket, beets, bok choy, spinach and kale to make bags of salad greens for the staff to take home!

We even used some greens in cooking to make savoury scones, yum!

Te Arawa kaimanawa have learned about seeds and germination by sprouting a bean seed and by sowing a pea seed, after 5 weeks the pea seedlings were big enough to plant out into the garden. Next we will need to make them a frame to climb up.

All Kaimanawa have had an opportunity to sow seeds, plant out seedlings and have learned about the importance of mulch. 

The opportunity to purchase a fruit tree for the school was put out to staff and whānau, there was no delay as 40 trees were purchased in two days! Thanks to Mark and Richard from Venture Developments for coming and digging 18 holes for our first stage of fruit tree planting. In the last week of term whānau who purchased a citrus or feijoa tree were invited to come and plant their tree. It’s exciting to see our garden vision taking shape!

Term 1 2023 – Getting Started

Kia ora my name is Leela Woodgate, I have joined PiPS this year to work with Te Manawa ō Pāpāmoa School to establish their school gardens. What a busy term one we have had! Some students from Mataatua who were keen to get involved had the opportunity to do some garden planning and drew up some designs from which we have had this amazing design created for us:

We have also learned about soil and the role worms play in creating healthy soil. It was fun comparing earthworms to composting worms and looking at all the other creepy crawlies that live in compost and worm farms. We have set up a rotating compost bin and are working towards having responsible compost monitors who will be in charge of collecting food scraps at kai times and putting them into the compost bin.

We are so grateful for DC Builders who kindly donated their time and resources to build us 16 raised garden beds. We have already started propagating herbs and alpine strawberries and have sowed a bunch of seeds so when we have the garden beds filled next term, we will be ready to plant straight into them!

Kaimanawa from Takitimu have shown a real interest in insects and bugs, some students chose to build bug hotels to house the creatures they find on their way to school and everyone got to look at a bunch of bugs that I found around my house; spiders, slaters, cockroaches, grasshoppers, worms…! Takitimu are responsible for monitoring the sentinel garden that is an initiative of TMBC, this is a kiwifruit bin kindly filled with soil from Te Puke Landscapes that has a variety of plants that act as trap plants for unwanted or invasive species. We will closely monitor the plants each week and will report to NZ biosecurity should we find anything unusual.