Tawhero School
School Vege Challenge 2023
Harvest Time & Judging
Last time we visited Tawhero School they had problems with pukeko eating all of the plants. There has been a new focus on moving the gardens to a larger site. They’ve been passionate about recycling and have incorporated a great composting system alongside the gardens with a new bin added recently. Among the next steps is to work on funding for a greenhouse and looking at joining the Enviro-schools program. Watch this space for an exciting journey!
Mid Challenge Update
Pukekos struck in the night and had a good feast across the seedlings. Only the garlic survived! New protective measures have been installed as a result and they’re taking a shot to get back on their feet.
We had a discussion about the location of the gardens as it was a little on the shaded side through winter and wasn’t totally visible to students. However they reported that the position works well for them as it is conveniently positioned by the compost heaps and alongside the resident fruit trees. Student participation and innovation has been good.
Getting Going
A generous donation from our sponsors Zealandia, Tui, Ican, Eastown, Yates and Egmont will get the school off to a great start.
School Vege Challenge 2022
Harvest Time & Judging
Mid Challenge Update
When we dropped off the vege challenge starter kit in February Tawhero didn’t have a school vegetable garden. Now they have five garden beds full of vegetables. They liked the bed kindly sponsored from Eastown Timber and they bought more. This kind of support back to the businesses involved is great and is what makes a program like this sustainable for those involved.
We met Tristan who is both the caretaker and teaches the kids about gardening. He spends ½ his time in the caretaker role and ½ his time teaching. The garden was looking pretty good, like other schools the brassicas were being eaten by white butterfly caterpillars.
The kids and I there went hunting for caterpillars. I explained about digital control where you can squash the caterpillars between the digits of your fingers. They didn’t really get my joke. They were thinking there might be some computer software that could stop the caterpillars.
I said to Tristan that the gardens looked great, he said he’d wished he’d got the lawns around the vege gardens done before we came. ‘Then they really look good’.
It was great to see another enthusiastic group of kids and led by Tristan its looking great.
I’m looking forward to seeing the garden again in a couple of months.
Getting Going
When our students received their starter pack from Springvale Garden Centre the enthusiasm was infectious:
“This is fun.”
“We are going to win!”
“Vegetables are yum!”
