Tahatai Kai Growers Term 2, 2024

Our Tahatai Kai Growers have been busy in the orchard this term. They are slowly eating away at the mountain of mulch and moving barrowloads of it to create mulch ‘donuts’ around each fruit tree. This improves the health of the trees, as they no longer have to compete with the grass or weeds at their bases, and the mulch mimics what would naturally surround them on a forest floor.  

We have even taken things a step further, learning about garden guilds, or plant communities.  Our kai growers have been busy planting seedlings in these mulch gardens around the base of each tree, with ‘buddy plants’ which will benefit the trees, by deterring pests, attracting pollinators and even mining for minerals, with their deep taproots.  They also made bird feeders to encourage biodiversity in the school orchard.

The garden beds in the main garden area have been out of action this term, but the area is nearly ready.  Mr. Greg, Mr. Scott and Mr. Skilton have been busy working together to rebuild damaged beds.  And we now have an extensive space where the kai growers will have access to a spacious garden shed, a tool shed, a tap and a shadehouse.  We have also received funding from Tauranga City Council to install some rainwater tanks, which will be used to water the gardens.  We plan to have a covered outdoor area for working on wet days and easy access to worm farms and compost bins.  Watch this space!!

Although we haven’t had the kai cart in action this term, we have had a few sneaky harvest days in the orchard.  The “gumshield oranges” were a huge hit, and our gardeners got creative, working out how to reach the juiciest oranges on the higher branches!  The staff didn’t miss out altogether though, with a big bowl of limes going to the staff room.

What’s Been Happening at TCS Gardens This Term?

Before the classes even got started this term, the kai growers were waiting for me.  They had discovered beans in the garden.  The sunny holidays had dried the pods well and it was time to gather black beans to save for planting.  I had lots of helpers, and that was just morning tea!

Tahatai Coast School orchard was laden with produce again this year.  We had lots of apples, a few nectarines and even nashi pears!  Our kai growers loved gathering them, tasting them (to make sure they were ok!) and then filling baskets for the kai cart to share fruit with the school whānau.

Our new entrants learned about worms and worm composting. They were super excited about spotting the striped tiger worms and loved checking on them and feeding them in our new in-ground composting bin that the older kai growers had made.

As there is change underway in the gardens, we have had to move our plants, and in the process we have learned about the different ways that plants reproduce.  Under the dahlias we discovered tubers, the broccoli gave us seeds and the strawberries sent out runners, whose roots grow down to start a new plant.  We thought this was the perfect opportunity for our kai growers to take a strawberry plant home, to care for and plant in their own gardens.  They loved decorating the pots too!

Our lunchtime Kai Growers are looking stylish this term, with their new bibs, so they don’t get lost among the tamariki playing in the gardens

Fun in the Gardens – Term 4

This term our kai growers were delighted to be working in smaller groups in the garden, and in the staff room kitchen.  In keeping with the learning theme “Healthy bodies, healthy minds”, we harvested some delicious greens from the garden; 3 varieties of kale, lemons and mint, and added some more fruit to make delicious green smoothies. 

Over a long glass of green goodness the gardeners discussed how much iron, calcium,  fibre and vitamins they were having! 

I have never seen kale disappear so fast!  Mr Skilton timed his lunch well and was served up a glass of green goodness - needless to say, he downed it in one - a hit all round!

We had a battle with the winds this term, fighting to keep our makeshift shade house from taking off! This has meant that keeping a constant supply of seedlings on the go has been a challenge.   Whaea Clare has since given us an upgrade and we have anchored it to the railings on the balcony.  We have got a better watering system now too, and we are seeing results with more seedlings pushing through. 

There are big plans underway for the gardening area, with work to start over the holidays.  This means we are shifting around some of our gardening beds, and needed to enlist the help of our gardeners.  Who knew what mahi these kids could do, in one day we managed to transplant all our strawberries, empty three raised garden beds of soil, and store our worm-rich soil, ready to re-use once the beds are repositioned. 

 We have been harvesting well this term too, lots of silverbeet, kale and herbs.  Before the term is done, we are hoping, weather permitting, to harvest potatoes too!  Seed saving has been a focus in the past few weeks, and the tamariki have taken the opportunity to use their creative artistic skills, decorating envelopes for seed storage, and are hoping to sell some at Christmas on the field… the perfect gift to pop in a christmas card!

All round it’s been a great year in the gardens.  We can’t wait to see what changes happen over the holiday and are looking forward to a very productive year next year!

Kai Growers’ News - Term 3

The winter weather proved a challenge for our seedling storage shelf, but our kai growers were not to be deterred, happy to start again and sow more shelves of seeds for the planting season ahead. It didn’t take long before they were sprouting and healthy enough to plant out into the garden beds. We are now looking at a timed watering system to give our seedlings a better start going forward.

The orchard was laden with lemons and oranges this term, so we took full advantage of the free access to good vitamin C. Our new entrants picked and tasted oranges and we had a wet day’s activity of making lemonade in the hall kitchen with lots of our gardening groups. A great way to keep wintery bugs at bay!

Spring is definitely on its way now, and we have had visits from Monarchs who seem to be really enjoying all the colour in out gardens, especially the calendula! We continue to work on planting lots of flowers in our veggie gardens to attract pollinators of all sorts to promote biodiversity in our garden area.

We have had some great feedback on the worm farms from Mr Greg. He was sitting in his shed, listening to a constant drip, wondering whether there might be a hole in the roof, when he solved the mystery!! - it was just the worm wee, dripping into the buckets!

Our worms have been super productive, and are the best fed around - thanks to our friends at Fresh Choice who provide us with a bucket of produce waste every week. Next term we have plans for some new compost bays made from donated upcycled pallets, so we hope to start making compost too!

Kai Growers Winter Garden

It’s been a bit of a slower term for growing, but our Kai Growers are as enthusiastic as ever about working in the garden.

Our plan to keep a constant supply of seedlings going is working well now.  The gardeners are getting used to making regular trips upstairs at lunchtimes or break times to check on their progress and water them if they need it.  We got creative and worked together to give our seedling storage shelf an upgrade, by using some thick plastic from a double mattress storage bag, some cable ties and some duct tape, we created our own mini greenhouse to help to speed up the growing process.  With our new capillary action watering system,  it seems to be working really well.

In the gardens too, we have been taking measures to make sure those little seedlings make it to our kai cart.  The ‘war on slugs’ is in full force in our gardens and the kai growers are taking it seriously, with traps set in each garden bed and wool mulch mats around each seedling.  They have also been busy making neem oil spray to keep away those pesky nibblers.  The garden beds look a bit different now too as we have two garden tunnels in place, hoping to deter white butterflies and their hungry offspring.

Our kai cart is in full swing again and we have had lots of produce to share with our school whānau on Thursdays at pick up time.  This is the year 6’s responsibility and they love preparing signage, packaging kumara, tying bundles of herbs and choosing some nice green leaves (which haven’t been discovered by caterpillars!!) to present in their kai cart at the end of the day.  Then, once the bell has gone, the race is on to get some of the harvest before it’s all gone!

The new entrants have been coming to the gardens too, learning about what they can eat and what they need to leave to ripen.  Those who have already taken home their seedlings to raise, come back with tales of how tall they have grown (or how they have perished!), and where they have chosen to plant them in order to take best care of them.  They love smelling, touching and tasting what they can in the garden.  Recently we’ve had a kitty visitor too, who has been a real hit!

After the kumara harvest, our gardeners were lucky enough to find some bonus treasures as they cleared out the bins, for Mr Greg to move them to make way for some big changes in the garden.  Watch this space! 

With the colder change, we have set up some bird feeders.  We used seed feeders and fruit feeders too for the nectar loving birds we have in Aotearoa.  Our gardening ‘monkeys’ were only too happy to hang them in the pohutukawa by the garden beds.

Tahatai Coast Kai Growers Term 1, 2023

Wow!  With all that rain over the Summer break, our gardens were full of growth after the holidays.  We even had a froggy visitor in the long wet grass!  With so much growth we managed to fill our Kai Cart a couple of weeks in a row, to share produce with our school whānau at school pick up time.

In the school orchard we had an amazing harvest with lots of varieties of different apples for our tamariki to taste, as well as some plums and nectarines.  Even our new entrants have become expert apple tasters and assure me that they taste “way better than the ones in the supermarket!”  

Our year 5s took over the role of being our worm farmers this term.  Mr. Greg hunted out two more worm farms for us, and we are already harvesting lots of organic fertiliser for our garden beds.  Thanks to the buckets of food scraps we pick up from Roger at the produce department at Fresh Choice Papamoa, our worms are the best fed in town!

We have been working on the quality of the soil in our garden beds too, planting green manure, which we have now ‘harvested’ by digging it back into the soil, to add nitrogen to our hardworking beds.

Our kai growers at Tahatai are sowing seeds every week, ensuring that we have a constant supply of seedlings to plant in our garden beds, to replace the crops we harvest.  

Another exciting project we have taken on is the planting of a Sentinel Garden - a pilot project launched by Tauranga Moana Biosecurity Capital (TMBC).  

As part of this project, our Kai Growers become kaitiaki, scientific observers, seeking out invasive pests in the gardens, ready to raise the alarm with Biosecurity NZ should they detect any invaders.  We had a visit from Lisa at Kiwifruit Vine Health, who shared her passion for the project with our tamariki.

PiPS 2023 Autumn Fundraiser with SPRING BULBS

Help PIPS get more equipment for your school gardens by beautifying your garden and the community.

Here is a great opportunity to purchase spring flowering bulbs and seeds to show your support for your in-school garden programme. Bulbs are easy to plant, fun to grow and will reward you with gorgeous flowers year after year.

We have some great choices here - why not try them all!  Bulbs are supplied by GardenPost who source bulbs from New Zealand’s and Holland’s best growers. PiPS will make a least 30% profit on all sales.  A planting guide will be enclosed with each order.

To order: Click here to fill in the order form, then make payment via internet banking

- by 30th March 2023.

Payment to: 01 0475 0158776 00 PIPS Incorporated 

                    - Reference your name and school

Delivery: Will be around 10th April 2023. We can deliver nationwide, postal cost will be around $6.

Thank you for supporting PiPS – your in-school garden programme.  

Enquiries to:     Clare Rodgers – pipstauranga@gmail.com

Welcome Whaea Maeve

In Term 4 Whaea Maeve started working with Tahatai Kai Growers.  Maeve has a background in teaching, is a keen gardener and loves working on creative projects.  She is excited to be joining the PiPs crew and working with the young gardeners at Tahatai Coast.

This term our new entrant groups are discovering the blossoms in the orchard and learning that they will all turn to fruit.  They enjoy rubbing herbs in their hands and smelling them, and tasting the edible flowers.  They have planted sunflowers in pots to take home and transplant in their own gardens.

The year 6s started the term by creating a worm farm in Mr Greg’s shed.  They have taken on the responsibility for feeding the worms weekly and  hope to get lots of organic fertiliser from them, which will feed our veggie gardens.

In week 3 they also harvested food for their kai growers’ feast.  The menu was garden herb pesto with crackers, rhubarb muffins and kawakawa tea!  These young chefs prepared it all in the hall kitchen, then set the table to sit and eat together.  The tamariki were also very happy to share their tasty treats with their teachers in the staff room.

During lunchtimes the year 4s have built a hugelkultur garden bed, by layering cardboard, branches, coffee grinds, dried leaves, grass clippings and compost, to make the perfect growing spot for kumara.  Another bed was topped up with compost and planted with pumpkins.  Some gardeners harvested spinach to take home and pop in the freezer for their morning smoothies and borage flowers for pretty ice cubes. They each chose and named a passion fruit on our very healthy vine and …and now we just have to wait and see whose passion fruit is the first to ripen!!  

Our year 5s have been testing out some wool mulch mats, to keep those pesky slugs and snails away from our seedlings.  This week they gathered leaves and made kawakawa tea -  some liked it so much that they took leaves home to make more for their families!

Adventures with Matua Jake

In July & August, our Tahatai Kai Growers had Matua Jake working with them while Whaea Clare was away on leave. Matua's a parent, an educator and an avid environmentalist. He's passionate about sharing his love of nature and was stoked to work with our tamariki here at TCS.

The children proudly showed Matua around their gardens and the school's other beautiful nature spaces!

The juniors searched for creepy crawlies and learnt that an ‘invertebrate’ is an animal without a backbone. They marveled at the life they found outside their class and much wonder and squeals of delight were shared.

All children enthusiastically dived into a ‘native plant treasure hunt’ and discovered many unique native plants... everyone was amazed by how many uses our native plants have - one being used for everything from insect repellent to toothache!

Turns out everyone had a sweet tooth, so juice from our school's orange trees was made, and a native fruit named titoki was discovered... although only a few hardy souls enjoyed the rather astringent, “acquired” taste! But as a favourite kai of our kereru, we decided it was worth planting and sowed some seeds

We learnt how many native animals have been lost from Papamoa, but also how through protecting and restoring their habitats we can bring them back! We also planted vege seedlings, harvested (and ate) broccoli shoots and weeded & mulched the gardens...

And to finish off, the students made banana pancakes! It was the perfect way to end a wonderful time together 😊😋

A big thank you to everyone involved!

A Busy Term 1 at Tahatai

With Covid still hanging around this term the decision was made that we would have year groups out into the gardens instead of a garden club. This way we could do more effective learning tailored to each age group.

Term 1 was busy cooking - our favourite was basil pesto and making our own orange juice, we picked fruit from the orchard and shared it with the kura.

We planted new seasons vegetables and harvested six pumpkins which we will use for pumpkin soup later in the year.

We also kept measuring the temperature in the soil so we knew when to stop planting the summer vegetables. Whaea Clare talked to us how summer vegetables like the soil to be around 15 degrees C so when this dropped we knew when to plant our autumn crop,

Whaea Clare also talked to us about our space and how to design a garden. We draw up some plans that Whaea Clare showed Mr Skilton, he is going to put some of these designs to good use.

We talked about roots and were amazed about how big some plant’s roots could get. It made us think about when we were watering about how much water the garden beds needed and how deep it needed to go into the soil.

We also made salads from the lettuce and silverbeet that we had, and loved trying new food that we grew.

Roll on Term 2 and I hope we will all be well and healthy to have a fun term.

Mauao Seed Saving - Collection Day

What a stunner of a day it was to go up Mauao for our annual seed saving day.

We had a great turn out of kids from our local schools including their parents who also came along to this special project. 

Josh the environmental manager of Mauao met us all in the morning and while our group was walking up the Mount he gave us a bit of history about some parts of Mauao. He showed the kids how to find the seeds from native plants.

The seeds we have collected will be planted by the tamariki in our schools and once the seedlings have reached a certain size they will be planted on another special day back at Mauao in an area which has been saved for us.

The kids had so much fun collecting the seeds and Josh was great at sharing his knowledge. 

We are very grateful that Josh took his time to give us this tour and it was all in all a very special day and a great experience for everyone !

End of Year Celebration

Today Whaea Clare and Miss Hunt threw us an end of year party with lots of delicious treats for our shared lunch. The year 6’s got to choose their kai first, as they’ve been leaders and mentors to the younger gardeners this year.

The year 6’s will be leaving for Intermediate next year, so they got to plant a feijoa tree in the orchard. Some of them have been garden club members since Kai Growers began five years ago! Luckily there are lots more keen gardeners coming through the years so our club is in good hands for next year.

We gave Whaea Clare and Miss Hunt a huge pakipaki to thank them for all the time and energy they’ve put in through the year to help us with Kai Growers.

Thank you too, to the sponsors and supporters who allow PiPS and TCS to run the Kai Growers programme. Meri Kirihimete and have a happy and safe New Year.

Mauao Seed Saving – Step 3

The seeds we collected on Mauao and then sowed into seed trays in May had been quietly sprouting over the winter. But today was a very big day for them and for us. It was time to ‘prick out’ the seedlings and give each one its own pot to grow in. If we left them all squashed together in trays for any longer they’d start to struggle as they competed with each other for nutrients and space.

We had some VIP guests come to support us with this mahi (luckily we were all on our usual best behaviour!). Josh, the Mauao DoC ranger; matua Dean from the Mauao Trust; Laura, representing one our main sponsors, TECT; Marie, PiPS sponsorship manager and Tim, presiding member of the TCS Board of Trustees.

Before we got to work matua Dean spoke to us about the legends and history of Mauao, and how our actions are going to help the maunga for generations into the future. This really struck a chord with us and we began our mahi with a great sense of respect, understanding what a privilege it was to be involved in this kaupapa.

Whaea Clare showed us how to use ice blocks sticks to gently tease the roots out of the soil, and to hold the seedlings very gently by their stems so as not to damage the roots. We filled the pots or bags 3/4 full with potting mix, made a hole in the middle and placed the seedling in very carefully, making sure the hole was deep enough that the roots wouldn’t be squashed up or left on the surface. Then we filled the pots the rest of the way and watered the seedlings in. The final step was putting our names onto each plant we’d worked on, so we can plant out our own seedlings onto Mauao in future.

It was a very special day for us.

Back After Lockdown II

We had another unexpected break from our garden when the country went back into Level 4 lockdown again. When we got back to school there were only seven weeks remaining in term 4!

A rainy day gave us the chance to make microwave fruit sponges, thanks to Miss Hunt. She helped us whip up a simple batter – we had to measure the ingredients and mix them up, then we each chose fruit to go underneath. We dolloped a tablespoon of sponge mixture on top of the fruit and Miss Hunt cooked each mini spongecake in the microwave for us. YUM!

Harvesting and Planning for Spring

Even though July marks the middle of winter, we still had spring in mind this month. Whaea Clare took us to the front of the school under the banksia trees. At first we thought there was just long scruffy grass growing there, but when we looked closely we could see the leaves and even a couple of buds of the spring bulbs we planted last winter, sprouting through the grass. We put some of our seed bombs around the bulbs, hopefully these will provide even more flowers in spring and summer.

We also had a big carrot hunt in our winter garden beds for anything we’d missed the other week. There was a huge group of gardeners for the start of the new term, so Whaea Danica got a knife and chopping board from Miss Hunt and we washed and sliced the carrots so everyone could get a taste. Yum! It happened so fast there wasn’t even time to get a photo! We tried some raw diced beetroot which also went down a treat. Cabbages, broccoli sprouts and silverbeet were picked too – our gardeners are getting very efficient at harvesting :)

Our Matariki Harvest Celebrations

June is the time of Matariki, the celebration of the Māori New Year and a time to bring in the final harvests. So harvesting and celebrating is what we did!

We harvested our carrots, which was very exciting as we’d been watching them grow week-by-week and had been patiently (or impatiently) waiting for our chance to pull them up. It was worth the wait, we had lots of colours and some very interesting shapes! A little bit of magic from Papatūānuku, especially enchanting for some our our junior gardeners :)

We also dug up the the kumara and potatoes last year’s Kai Growers had planted in kōanga (spring). All year these beds had just sat at the back of our garden area, growing leaves and not getting much attention. Who would have known that in fact they held an underground treasure hunt! It was a lot of fun to discover what was growing under the soil – so many shapes and sizes. Every time we thought we’d found all there was to find, we would rummage under the soil again and find more.

We gathered everything up and put them in a box. Miss Hunt said she’d take them home and roast them for us.

A couple of weeks later we were actually glad for a rainy day, because Miss Hunt brought in the carrots, kumara and potatoes she’d roasted, and fried them up in the electric frypan. Hot vege chips, what a feast!

Before roasting the veges Ms Hunt had put half of our kumara aside for making kumara and orange soup. Our job was to prepare the kumara and once again we surprised ourselves with how much fun this mahi turned out to be – we were queuing for the peelers! We washed, peeled and cut up the kumara.

While we were clearing up the kitchen area we got thinking about the big pile of kumara peelings we had left over. We considered what we could do with them.

Worm farm?

Compost bin?

Or… how about trying to cook some? Miss Hunt fried them up with oil, salt and some thyme from the herb garden on her verandah. Turns out they were absolutely delicious and we hoovered them up in literally a few seconds. There was barely time to snap a photo before they were gone. Sorry worms :)

Some of our gardeners went down to the orchard and returned with six huge oranges (thanks, orchard!). We gave three to Miss Hunt for the soup, and decided to share the other three between us all. They made a sweet, juicy dessert for our feast.

After all that, the only thing left on our table was a small pile of kumara tubers that had been too little to peel. But we are a No Waste bunch here at Kai Growers. Miss Hunt showed us how we could take these tiny tubers home and turn them into beautiful houseplants. All we need to do is put the bottom bit of the tuber in water. In a couple of weeks kumara leaves will start to sprout from the top and form a beautiful vine. We can even use some of these sprouts to grow new kumara plants (tipu) for our garden next spring, so the cycle will continue.

Thank you Miss Hunt for all your mahi helping us turn our harvests into a Matariki feast.

Mauao Seed Saving – Step 2

Fast forward a couple of weeks and Whaea Tess came to help us start the propogation. First up we sorted our seeds and learned about the best way to plant each type. Then we got to work. Miss Hunt will keep our seed trays on her balcony and make sure they are kept safe and watered. We’re excited to see what happens next!

The Mauao Seed Saving Project – Step 1

We started a very special project this month, one that we shared with our other PiPS member schools. In conjunction with the Mauao Trust, who are kaitiaki of Mauao, PiPS is going to harvest seeds from trees and plants growing on Mauao, raise the seedlings and then when they are ready, plant them back on Mauao.

Tikanga dictates that you can’t just go and take vegetation from Mauao, so to have been given permission to work with the Mauao Trust on this whakatakanga is a great honour.

Luckily we had kaumatua Jack Thatcher from the Mauao Trust, Josh the Mauao DoC ranger and Whaea Tess, our facilitator from some of the other PiPS schools, to guide us with the seed collecting.

Our work began at the start of May. Some of us combined with kids from other PiPS schools on Sunday morning at the base of Mauao. Kaumatua Jack took us to a spot where he believes was a traditional area for growing and weaving harekeke, blessed the mahi we were undertaking, and talked to us about the history of the maunga, and the changes the Trust envisions. Their mission is to “protect and preserve the mauri of Mauao; and to ensure the natural, physical and cultural integrity of Mauao is maintained”. We definitely want to help with that!

Kaumatua Jack explains the history of the area we are going to help to regenerate.

Marie, Heidi, Whaea Tess and Whaea Clare, from PiPS.

We made our way gradually up the maunga, stopping to collect seed along the way. Different plants produce different types of seed and have different methods of distributing them. Some make tiny parachutes, like dandelions, relying on the wind to drift them away. Others make little helicopters, like sycamores. Others encase their seeds in tasty berries, so birds will do the distribution for them.

We had to make sure we were harvesting ripe, dry seeds. We collected them in paper bags, remembering to label them carefully.

It was a great adventure. Not only did we collect lots of seeds but we learned so much about the maunga. Now we’re inspired and excited for the next step of the project.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and Whaea Tess came to help us start the propogation. First up we sorted our seeds and learned about the best way to plant each type. Then we got to work. Ms Hunt will keep our seed trays on her balcony and make sure they are kept safe and watered. We’re excited to see what happens next!

Autumn Bounty

April saw the end of Term 1. What a great term for our students, we spent time direct sowing a lot of seed and they are starting to pop up now. We have been a bit worried where we will put everything but we thought some of us could take them home for our gardens, sell them, or we just make room.

We also did an experiment with an ‘ola pot’. An ola pot is a terracotta pot that you bury in the garden, fill with water and over time the water seeps slowly out of the pot and waters the garden. We found it worked really well and when we lifted the pot we could see the plant’s roots growing in the direction of the pot.

When we got back from the holidays one of our broccoli was ready so we cut it up and had it for our lunch, we also found beans, lettuce and our edible flowers. We also checked our carrots as Ms Hunt has this amazing carrot dip recipe that we are all wanting to try. Also our beetroot is nearly ready too. What will we cook with this?

Late Summer Busy-ness

It‘s been a very busy term for us here at Tahatai. We have been learning about companion planting and the role flowers and herbs play in this. We have been watching how our planter boxes are going and have had to thin them out a lot but we will sell what we have left and put some in our gardens.

The seeds we have direct sown into the beds are getting very big and we are thinning them out on a weekly basis. We have also been caterpillar hunting because the cabbage white butterflies have been busy laying eggs. The caterpillars will eat our brassicas to stumps, so we’ve been moving them away from the gardens.

We have made our own fertiliser out of seaweed, sheep and horse poo, weeds, grass, mulch and leaves. We are checking it weekly and using it to fertilise our vegetables.

We have also been looking after our orchard as it’s not getting a lot of water, so the kids have loved going around and watering it, looking out for pests and letting us know if there is fruit on the trees.

Last week we planted some coriander from seed we saved from last year’s plants. I wonder what we will be cooking with that once it grows.