2016 off to a new start

2016 has got off to a great start with school gardens back buzzing.
There have been some treasures growing in the gardens over the school holidays and it is almost like a treasure hunt!
Waitaki Valley School have been harvesting their late harvest garlic crop. Room 2 have made it into their class project to sell it at the school office in brown paper pages. Here some students gave plaiting garlic a go.

Duntroon School have got back into the gardening swing of thinks and have a number of butterfly nests for cabbage white butterfly control. Their garden is abundant and has great soil.

 The butterflies are quite hard to catch but lots were caught.

Fenwick school garden has grown hugely over the holidays and they have come back to some giant sunflowers and some giant weeds

The weeding mission is on, and they are looking at getting whole classrooms down to the garden to work on the different plots

Pembroke School gardens have been quite easy to tidy up and here they get planting new carrot beds, as sooo many kids seem to love fresh carrots to eat

 Pembroke School has the best strawberry patch in North Otago I bet.  This huge tractor tyre is full of strawberry plants and there was a treasure hunt on once school was back with many a yummy ripe strawberry found

This week we potted up the strawberry runners and students got to take some home.  We should expect another round of strawberries to grow in October, November, so get planting those runners.  Thanks for the tip Gordon, from the Community Gardens

Oamaru North School were able to harvest a small salad from their little garden

We found a sage bush that had sent out flowers with ripe sage seeds

We get to spend time in the staff room and discuss gardening, plants and food

Parent help Natasha is so amazing at putting together platters mainly from her own garden.  Last week we also looked at the science behind pop corn going pop!

Some children get to try different fruits or vegetables to what they are used to

St Joseph's School is embracing change at their school and have handed over the management of the school garden to some of their school's senior leaders, know as school counsellors.  They will devise a plan for their school garden to get it up and running after the holidays and involve whole classrooms in activities and learning with my help.

Here Tane harvests a HUGE marrow that has had a summer of growth.

 Lauchie found another one too

It is going to be great working with these school leaders and see what creative ideas they come up with for their school garden.