Join us for a LONG Lunch on the Coast

Another  beautiful spring day on the Coast...lets do lunch!

Press play & join us for a LONG Lunch on the West Coast...rain...its a myth!

Ginger Beer for the workers...

 Today we started our Ginger Beer Bugs!

WE looked every where but we are pretty sure no bugs went into these jars...although we did find a stick insect on patrol in our garden today?

 

Rooms 1 , 10, 8, 7 & 6 each have a bug that they are going to feed 2 teaspoons of sugar and 2 teaspoons of ginger everyday...aren't you guys?

 To start a ginger beer bug you need a jar half filled with water, you then add the juice of 2 lemons...

...in goes the lemon juice...

...you also add 6 nice sugary sultanas & 2 teaspoons of ginger, and 4 teaspoons of sugar.

 

You then need a breathable lid to keep out the fruit flies, we used paper with rubber bands or preserving rings.

 

Garden Warriors don't forget to bring the Bugs back to Garden Club on the 12th September with 4 clean 1.5 litre fizzy drink bottles...it will be bottling time!

 

Then...Gingerbeer for the end of term ginger beer stand!

A Step in Time...

 The bottle garden with stepping stones is definitely our Garden Warriors most popular construction...even siblings are coming along to get in on the action!

 

Just imagine it with purple edible violas and cheerful orange marigolds and calendula spiralling around rainbow silver beet and lettuce...patience young one!

 Darth Vader had ten thousand Storm Troopers...

 ...he marched them up to the top of the hill...

 ...when they were up, they were up...

...when they were only half way up they were neither up nor down!



So this is what you guys get up to at lunchtime...

...push play now (that triangle button on the left...click it with your mouse & see)!

Our Take home salad Gardens

 Today we decided that our lettuce seedlings needed to be released and stretch their roots out.

They would need some Tui's potting mix with super sheep poop... from the McLaughlin Family's Shearing shed mixed through it!

 Our Garden Warriors got quickly to work filing their ice cream containers that our Engineering Warriors had drilled holes in...

 Then it was down the production line to get our lettuce plants...

 We very carefully pushed our baby lettuce into the soil...

 NICE job!

Thank you Ali for climbing under the shearing shed and digging out those wonderful little round balls of poop!

 A final watering for all the "take home gardens"...

BRILLIANT effort Garden Warriors, at the end of term you can take these delicious salad gardens home and enjoy them for dinner!

Post by Samantha Rm 7



Lego Policeman Patrols North School Garden...

 This yellow bucket used to have electric fence parts in it...we thought it was a headless Lego man!

 SO...we set about giving him a "Compost Chimneybot body"...

 Our resident Lego art specialist got to work...what do you think he is going to be?

Lego Police guy on Patrol!

Actually...looking at that half eaten donut we suspect he is OFF patrol!

Lets hope Lego Police Guy keeps Whetu Weka out of our garden!

Post by Ben Room 8



Look at What else we have Growing in our Garden...

...its not just an edible garden, there is something more growing in the Westport North School Garden...hit play to find out!

Another busy lunchtime garden session:

A trailer load of treasure delivered courtesy of our caretaker...

Thank you Mr caretaker!

Adding stepping stones to our bottle garden (Thank you Mr Allwiredup for cutting these from drift wood for us)... 

... testing our new stepping stones!

 More new seeds being planted ...

 Today's seeds all lined up: butterfly mixture, edible violas, rainbow beets (Thank you KINGS Seeds for the discount & complimentary packets)

 Lettuce seedlings for our take home gardens ready to plant out next week into the 2 litre ice cream packs.

 Our new garden installation ...

...what could it be?

 Creating our new progressive sculpture from flax...

 "sneak peak"...keep checking back on our progress!

 Another NEW installation this week...boys working hard to fill our new garden

Could it be ANOTHER Garden Art installation?

 Thank you Avery's for the "Culvert pipe Towers".

Check out our new planning black board and weaving wall...more next week!

"hey guys check out our potatoes"

... planting of the paotoes, a little Tui's Potato fertiliser to help things along!

Lets plant together...then EAT together in 3 months time!

Todays Blog Post by Samantha (Rm7) & Annika Rm6

Garden growth...

Play our video to see how much our seedlings that were planted in late June have grown ...

Whetu te Weka

 Meet Whetu Te Weka!

This is Whetu Te Weka the North Star who has become a regular visitor to our garden. Westport is the Weka Capital of New Zealand and evidence suggests that Whetu has been having a lovely forage in our garden these last few weeks, it would appear he is especially fond of pea seedlings...

 ...so it was that our ever handy "Garden Facilitator" had to further Weka proof our fence...

...Whetu Te Weka was not in the least put off by this activity and proceeded to supervise!

It looks like we still have a bit of work to do to secure our garden from uninvited guests.

Wekas can become quite tame, they have powerful beaks, are carnivorous but will completely annihilate a vegetable garden over night!

Please stay on the other side of the fence Whetu!

Newspaper Potatoes

 With a little help from the "Westport News" we made a quick retained garden today for Christmas potatoes...

 ...newspaper bundles in place around a scruffy corner of our garden...

 ...a few layers of pea straw with a few...

...layers of dirt!

Just the spot to start our new seasons potatoes!

Exciting Tui News

 Last Friday it was announced at Assembly that our Wonderful Garden Warriors had been awarded the first spot prize of the "Tui School Challenge" for their creative efforts. Today we opened the exciting package, a HUGE thank you to Tui and Mitre 10...keep watching this space to see how we intend to put the vouchers and books to use!

 After hearing of our exciting news it was time to settle down and get down to garden business...feed Darth Vader (rumour has it he has a friend under construction)...

 ...plant some peas...

... rake some leaves...

 ...tidy our garden shed, we love those tog bag cubby holes of the old changing shed...

...and shift some more dirt!



Spring has sprung on the Coast...

 This Friday it really felt like spring!

Our Garden Warriors certainly made the most of it...

...more cable drum planters were under construction.

 Bottle top beads were made ready for a special threading project...

 Lots of precision drilling was required to make these watering cans...

 ...quality control testing confirmed that all watering cans were functioning as designed!

 Field testing of our new watering cans proved very popular with our lovely Garden warriors! 

 All this lovely weather has caused a growth spurt in our gardens...here is our weeding crew hard at work!

 Our Bok Choy certainly sprouted and was ready to harvest!

 Everyone was very keen to help harvest ...

...and load our barrow for the 3pm school gate market!

We sold enough to buy a few more packets of seeds...hooray Garden Warriors!

A special thank you to our fantastic garden Warrior photographer's...seems taking photos of ourselves is also a popular pursuit!