With all this food growing let's get eating and welcome to a new school.

There has been a nice boost of growth in the school gardens in the last few weeks.  So it has been taste test time.  Lettuce and herb rolls, green juices and smoothies.
Pembroke school were the first to get wizzing with my new Nutribullet.  The students went foraging in their school gardens and each brought a handful of edibles to the kitchen for blending.

 Pineapple and coconut water made nice mixers for the green smoothies.

                                                                         They enjoyed them

St Joseph's School were next to have a got and making a delicious combination.  There were a few marigold petals in the mix and some cacao beans to give a chocolatey hint. Educational talks included where chocolate comes from and students got to try raw cacao beans.  Also nutritional benefits of drinking raw smoothies with all their available fibre.

Students really enjoyed the aspect of eating what they had grown.  Some students had never tried some of the vegetables before.  We spoke about healthy food choices.

In probably the most exciting news is the welcome addition to the Kid's Growing Project, Oamaru North School.  We had a keen bunch of gardening student on Wednesday to get the new garden established.  The cement boxes are a temporary measure as their school is about to undergo a lot of construction and there will eventually be a bigger school garden.  But it was great to make a start with the students.

                           Weeding the old beds out

Seedlings grown at the Waitaki Community Garden's by our green thumbed gardening grandparent Gordan, were gratefully received and planted out.  Cabbage, broccoli, lettuce and a teacher donated some lovely sunflower seedlings.  It looks great.  Well done and welcome aboard the Kids Growing community Oamaru North School.

Duntroon School decided that they would like some living garden art, so got creating with some knowledgeable parent help and made a willow harlequin tree.  Made from willow and well watered in the idea is that it will keep growing and can be trimmed and will eventually hold its shape.

Students enjoyed the almost dance that it took to put it in place, lattice working their way from the bottom to the top.  Observation and geometric skills came in handy and fine motor skills to tie the crossed willow to hold the cuttings in place.

What a beautiful achievement Duntroon School.  Well done.  I encourage other schools to think about this sort of garden art.  Also come up to the Waitaki Community Garden's in Chelmer Street to get some inspiration for willow fencing and willow basket edging around plots. It is a fine feature in any garden,

Fenwick School had a good turn out this week with two weeding teams and a potato planting team.
One group of weeders discovered an apricot tree that had been hidden for a few weeks.

                                                               Preparing the potato bed

                                                                 Successful weeding

                                                           Planting out a courgette

A lovely thing we have started at Fenwick School is mindfulness in the garden,  a five minute sit-down around the herb tyres and a chance to settle and be still, observing different sounds and happening around the garden and beyond.  Last week it also involved a taste test for students to sit quietly and experience the taste of 3 different herbs. Students report that they feel 'refreshed', 'calm' and 'peaceful' after mindfulness in the garden.  It is also a nice calm transition into groups and making a start on the gardening jobs at hand.  Next year we plan to have it in all Garden Clubs as a nice way to make a start in our busy world.  There is good evidence to suggest mindfulness can have numerous benefits to the psycho-social and educational development of children.  Count me in I think we all need some!

Kurow School have had a growth spurt in their salad bar garden. So lettuce and herb wraps were a nice treat at the end of garden club.

Maheno School Parade

The Maheno School celebrated Animal Day last week, parading their pets with pride and excitement:

One of the highlights was the Lamb Races--a sprint to bottle feed lambs the fastest!

Racers line up

Lambs line up

The race is on--bottoms up!

Totara School has big plans for a new garden

The students at Totara School are in the process of building a whole new edible garden near the new school kitchen.

Planting runner strawberries

Watering the strawberries

 Not only are the kids at Totara growing fruits and veggies, they are also harvesting sweet sounds from their Sound Garden:

Wind Chimes

It's turning into summer

As the weather warms, we are getting some hints of the summer season ahead.  School gardens have been preparing and planting out the essentials.

We have a fair bit of thanks to give out.  Over the last month many generous souls have donated their time and seedlings to the Kids Growing programme.

A big thank you to Burnadette from Otematata who donated many tomato plants.  Kat Mac from Kowhai BnB in Duntroon who donated strawberry plants and goji and raspberry plants. St Vincent de Paul donated a big beautiful blue teapot for the communtiy gardens so we can make herb teas to enjoy.

Project Oamaru have donated a cast iron pan for us to cook in the school gardens. Think vege and herb omelets and berry pancakes!

Hi flo plumbling has lent us there wonderful hot windowsill on Thames Street.  Here the Kids Growing programme has been able to start tomatoes for the School Gardens. 

Also Topflite seed company have generously donated a big bag of sunflower seeds that have made there was into many school gardens, pockets and plots at home.

So a very big thank you to the generosity of our community members and businesses that have donated to the Kids Growing Project.

In Kids Growing news.  Duntroon School Garden Club students have been making seed containers so seeds are dry and safe from mice in the shed.

 Students enjoyed going home with a selection of seeds and the latest kids gardening magazine

 Students have been enjoying taste testing the purple broccoli

St Joseph's School Garden Club Co-ordinator is Suzie.  She brought her wee pup Lou Lou to help out.  Here is a wee video of  Lou lou staring at St Josephs school

This week students also got planting the Topflite sunflower seeds infront of the staff room.

Weeding was completed

 Courgettes and tomato plants from Hiflo's windowsill were planted

Pembroke School Garden is looking good, especially the salad bar

At the end of Garden Club we have been making salad wraps with mint, kale and chives rolled in a leaf of lettuce

Students also chopped in the green manure crop to give nitrogen back to the soil for the tomatoes. Jade the co-ordinator of Pebroke School Garden helps students

Pembroke Garden Club about to plant the hiflo tomatoes.

Thanks Hiflo for your sunny windowsill!

Fenwick School are enjoying their pallet wall garden.  The strawberries are blooming. Ruby gives them a good water

 We are so pleased to have parent help Mel come on board to help out.  Here she helps students plant out

 Great to have Lucianne, extreem weeder, tackling the biggest weeds in the garden this week, doing an amazing job.

Weeding and planting out!

We encourage students and their families to come to the Community Gardens in Chelmer street on Fridays 5-7pm over summer, to partake in Pizza Friday's. W

e light the wood fired pizza oven and for $5 for adults or $2 per child they can enjoy a pizza, fun, music and games in the garden.

We also have some fun parties coming up as part of the Heritage Celebrations, be sure to come along.