Totara School Update

What a day at Totara School Garden Club! On the 16th May, it was cloudy with a chance of meatballs and silliness. We had a lot to do, but we had a lot of fun while we were doing it!

Our key tasks today were painting rock labels for the veggie garden...

We also planted seeds for rainbow silverbeet, chives, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, rocket, flowers, mescalin, and cabbage. Then we watered the garden and tidied up. We had a mix of kids from both classes and great team work today!

Tidy Up Crew

Totara School Garden Planted & Looking Good!

Maheno Garden Club

On Monday, 16th May at Maheno School, the weather is cloudy, but warm. Today we painted rock signs for the garden.

Plant Labels

Gemma Painting

James Painting Rocks

 We also planted spring onions, garlic chives and broad beans. 

Here's what we learned:

"what broad bean seeds look like" --Brooke

"it hurts to stand on stinging nettles" --Mackenzie

"how to paint rocks and plant garlic chives properly" --Gemma

An Awesome Working Bee at Glenavy School

An Awesome Working Bee at Glenavy School

On Tuesday May 17th at Glenavy Garden Club, the sun was out, and Room 4 was bursting with energy. We started by playing a quick game of tag... Broccoli & Cheese Sauce! We could hear the flagpole banging in the wind, cars in the distance, bird song, and children chattering.... it was time for a busy working bee!

Our creative team got painting, preparing hand-made labels on rocks for each of the vegetables we've planted in the garden.

 Our garden calendar said it was a good day for sowing plants that grow above the ground, so our planting team got to work preparing the soil for winter crops...

O

 We planted broccoli, bokchoy, cabbage, lettuce, cauliflower, rainbow silverbeet, arugula, and rocket.

Our microgreens experiment from last week was drowned, so we drained and re-potted the cans that had flooded or fallen over. We found that team work and good leadership worked well. It was chaotic in the beginning as children rushed for paint and tools, but strong leadership helped us to develop some efficient systems. Harry and Maria did a fantastic job leading the planting team. Thanks!

We also decided as a group to make some Glenavy Garden Club Rules:

Plant Labels Painted on Rocks

1. Have fun

2. Listen to leaders and teachers

3. Do the task assigned

4. Try new things

5. Tidy up at the end

6. Respect each other, tools and the garden

Freshly Planted Garden

Glenavy Makes Microgreen Heads

On Tuesday, May 10th, Room 4 at Glenavy School made mini-microgreen gardens in recycled tin cans. The weather was cloudy and overcast, but that didn't stop us from gardening and doing a science experiment inside! Each student in the class decorated their own can and chose what seeds to plant. Each student planted 10 seeds in their tin--mostly lettuce, chives or edible flowers.
Here are some of the things we created and learned....

 "There is science in the garden"

 "We learned what a hypothesis is"

 "We learned what microgreens are"

 As part of our learning process, we discussed the Scientific Method and developed some hypotheses-- an educated guess in a science experiment. We estimated the "strike rate" or what percentage of our seeds would grow in different growing conditions.

Here are our hypotheses: 70% of seeds will grow in the tunnel house, 75% will grow in the shade house, 50% will grow inside in the class window, and 20% will grow inside with no light.

 We'll keep you posted on the results of our experiment!

Microgreen heads in the shade house

cooking up a storm

Fenwick school garden has some yummy kale growing. This week parent help Mel Hayward helped create delicious omelettes with a sour cream and chive topping.

Half the group helped clear a section of garden outside the classroom while the other half helped prepare the meal.

Kale and herbs were harvested and taken back to the kitchen and washed. We had chopping teams and serving teams and even dishes teams.

The group's creation was delicious.

Great fun and education in the garden. Learning about the tastes of different food we grow and how to use the different things growing in the garden to create a delicious meal.

Totara School Garden Club

30th March 2016

Today, the weather was windy, a bit cold, and the sky was grey. First, we checked the worm farm and fed the worms grass and silverbeet. Second, we tidied the toolshed and took inventory of all the tools we have, and what we need. We made this list of tools we need: fork, broom, seeds, compost, garden gloves & small shovels. Miss Miriam and Sophia are going shopping for new tools later this week. This week, we also watered the garden and weeded the bark chip paths. To finish up the session, we talked about Garden Club Rules and working as a team. These are our 4 garden club rules we agreed on together:

1.       Have fun.

2.       Be quiet when someone else is talking.

3.       Do the task you are assigned in the garden.

4.       If you don’t do the task assigned, you will return to class.

6th April 2016

Today, the weather was sunny and bird song filled the air.  There is silverbeet and calendula flowers growing well in the garden. We saw birds, a hedgehog, a spider and beetles while we worked. Sophia arrived with a trailer full of compost for the new garden beds. We did lots of digging and scooping loads of compost from the trailer into the wheelbarrow. We even had time trials to see who was the fastest digger. Here’s the team at work: 

Action shot from the Digger Time Trials:

We got a lof of new tools for the school garden. Lilly did an excellent job labelling and organising the tools in the toolshed.

These were our favourite things about garden club this week:

·         “hanging out” –Lilly

·         “the trailer ride” –Josie & Abbey

·         “seeing a hedgehog” –Abbey

·         “digger time trials” –James

Maheno School Garden Club Update

11th April 2016

The weather today was cloudy, but warm. Lots of new stuff in the garden—new seeds planted, new garden club members, new weeds, and new worms in the worm farm. Today we planted cabbage, rainbow silverbeet, broccoli, ordinary silverbeet, lettuce and cauliflower. We also transplanted an oak seedling and watered all the garden beds. We pulled out old crops of broccoli, tomatoes & corn and composted them. We found potatoes and tomatoes while we were working in the garden. We did a weeding blitz—weeding 5 beds in 5 minutes—singing, “we will, we will kill you, weed you, pull you out and compost you!”

2nd May 2016

Today, weather is cloudy, but it hasn’t rained yet. The moon calendar said was a good day for weeding and garden maintenance, so we did. Some of the garden club weeded, 

(Cool new sign at Maheno Garden Club!)

while others made walnut bags by folding sheets of newspaper. The walnuts have been collected from the school tree, will be bagged up in the newspaper pockets, and sold at Happy Harvest Day next Friday, May 13th. 

We also harvested a pumpkin for Happy Harvest Day. We learned that the pumpkin plants weren’t planted early enough because they are still flowering after the first frost, and most of the pumpkins growing are still very small.

Case and Ben were on a special mission this garden club... they “learned how to climb kowhail trees and harvest the seeds. We also harvested flax seeds by banging the seed pods on the ground and sweeping the loose seeds into a bucket.” --Case

Four of us had a weeding competition to see who is the Fastest Weeder in Maheno. The challenge was to weed and fill an entire bucket; Pip finished 1st, Gemma 2nd, Shelby 3rd and Sophia 4th.

Our plan for next week is to do some planting and prepare for Happy Harvest Day.