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.
