Time to bottle our ginger beer ...

 Today was a busy garden session, we managed to cram 3 different activities in!

 

Our Ginger beer bugs that had been lovingly tended over the last couple of weeks, were ready to bottle up.

When we get back next term we should have 12 bottles of fizzy delectable Ginger beer ready for our Lunchtime ginger beer stand. WE Hope to raise money for our garden & the "Breakfast Club".

 First we needed to dissolve 2 Cups of sugar in water for every bug...

 ...we then needed the juice of 2 lemons for each bug!

 Our Garden Warriors really loved using this nifty device...

 ...and out comes the lemon juice!

Thank you VERY much Ms Marsh for sharing your lemons with us!

 Next we needed to add 4 bottles (1.5ltr soft drink bottles) of water for each bug...

 ...lastly we added the strained ginger beer bug...& stirred!

We all loved using the funnels and filling up our bottles!

 

Good Work Garden Warriors...just the weather for a refreshing cool Ginger beer after a Garden session!

 

Post by: Sam & Naomi Rm 7

Perfect Parsley Pesto

 Parsley was going berserk in our garden...time for pesto!

 Pesto preparation consisted of ripping off lots of parsley leaves, adding a couple of cloves of garlic, salt & pepper to season, a generous handful of Brazil nuts, 1/3rd C of olive oil, topped off with 2 scoops of grated Parmesan...time to BLEND!

 Hey pesto...oops we meant presto!

 Celery sticks form our garden on stand buy ready to dip into our "Perfect Parsley Pesto!"

 Oh that looks Delicious!

 Healthy snacks are the best snacks!

We also enjoyed cutting patterns into our radish & putting them into iced water to open into radish flowers!

After much taste testing we decided unanimously that the white radish were the hottest!

Warrior Coleslaw goes down well!

 Today was another stunning West coast day, the sun has been out & everything in our garden has grown noticeably!

 

We had rainbow radish, celery, spinach, coloured silver beet, & herbs ready for eating...so it was Warrior Coleslaw on the menu!

 

 Ever eager our Garden Warriors were keen to try out their firey radish!

 Everything went into our coleslaw...radish, thinly sliced spinach & cabbage (donated from our Garden Facilitator's garden as ours weren't quite ready), mung beans, chopped parsley & mint, and celery.

WE "dressed" our "fresh green" Warrior Coleslaw simply... with lashings of garlic infused avocado oil, then splashed it generously with lemon juice & balsamic ....Delicious!

 We looked at how you can "sprout" beans & other seeds...

 ...then wrapped servings of our "Warrior Coleslaw" in rice paper for tasting!

 Delicious "Warrior Coleslaw" rice paper rolls chased down with radish fire!

Good work Garden Warriors, thank you for the photos... it is always a surprise to see what we have to work with!



The 70th Birthday Party

 On the 10th of September we were fortunate to share in the 70th birthday celebrations of our school:

 

Westport North School

 

 OF course there was a scrumptious cake (thank you Mrs Lamplough for making such a delightful cake), that was cut by a matching set of our youngest 5 year olds, ably assisted by a couple of original North School 5 year olds.

Mrs Marsh our lovely Principal looked great dressed up in period costume, and we all enjoyed our shared birthday lunch, and a slice of birthday cake...a day enjoyed by all (who doesn't enjoy a good birthday party)!

 In preparation of our school's birthday party, 4 of our most hardy Garden Warrior families braved the blustery weather to tidy up our school gardens...ready to receive birthday guests!

As you can see bracken was threatening to engulf not just the gardens but our Garden Warriors!

 Our team of Garden Warriors set about making light work of the gardens...

 ...everyone was keen to get out of the weather so settled in...

 ...& got down to business!

 Within an hour this trailer was full to overflowing with flax, bracken and cabbage tree leaves!

 It was heads down & butts up as the 2nd playground garden got the weed mat and mulch treatment...

 Dad's & wheel barrows are as kiwi as!

 A HUGE THANK YOU to Holcim Cement for sponsoring the "Paper to trees" school initiative. Our front gardens look lovely now thanks to your kind donation of assorted native shrubs.

We were impressed to see how many Rimu & flax seedlings had self seeded in all the leaf litter.

A job well done Garden Warrior Families, a very productive, collective hour braving the elements...now off to that barbecue...you deserve it!



Time we introduced our town...Westport!

This month our little port town of Westport turned

150 years old!

WE thought it was time we introduced you to the lifestyle we enjoy here in our little piece of paradise...especially as our humble blog is being viewed from around New Zealand and the world!

Westport could well be the unofficial Capitol of New Zealand in many things including the following:

• Weka Capitol of New Zealand
• Whitebait Capitol of New Zealand (closely contested with Hokitika)
• Export quality coking coal Capitol of New Zealand
• Cranberry Capitol of New Zealand
• Turbot/Hoki/Tuna Capitol of New Zealand
• Orange High Vizibility wearing Capitol of New Zealand

Enjoy our video clip, we live in a special place!

Practicing Patience...

 Another great turn out of eager Garden Warriors in our garden today.

 

WE are all practising patience as we wait for our seedlings to grow large enough to plant out.

There was much surprise & delight at seeing their art installed

 Warriors were intrigued to learn that you could grow plants from cuttings...

 

This mint and rosemary smelt tasty & started a nibbling session around our gardens as Garden Warriors had a little "taste" of what was growing...chives, parsely, corriander...

 Some mint was delegated to our "Culvert Towers"

 ...with the remainder going to the newspaper bunded garden around the scruffy pre-existing compost heap.

Grow free & wild mint and cover this scruffy corner in a carpet of fresh smelling green!

 ...now we just need our potatoes to grow... to go with our mint!

Mmmm new potatoes with mint and melting butter for Christmas!

 We poked lots of rosemary cuttings along this fence...we are hoping for a hedge to cut out the wind!

 Strawberry plants were next, this is going to be a popular garden in the summer!

Thank you Ferrier Family Garden for this bin load of goodies today!

 Our knitting reel continues to intrigue...

 A drift wood pea frame got under construciton in the pea garden courtesy of these 2 Garden Warriors.

WE have been having LOTS of trouble keeping Whetu Te Weka out of our garden area, he has been nipping off ALL our pea shoots as they come up!

The last of our pea seeds went in today...3rd time lucky!

 

A HUGE thank you to Mr Allwiredup who came in on the weekend to further Weka proof!

 Potting mix went into the milk bottle heads ready for planting next week.

Our daffodils have been rather popular, here is one of our loveliest Garden Warriors checking on progress in her garden.

 

A delicate little birds egg shell was found in here today signalling the arrival of spring despite 2 rather untimely frosts this week, and snow arriving on the Paparoas!

The Garden Art Session

Click on play to see what our Garden Warriors got up to in half an hour with some paint & driftwood...

Tui Garden Art Session

So what was happenign in your garden today Mr Lego Policeman?



Driftwood Garden Guardians were being created...is that so!

 

Thank you to Tui & Mitre 10 for our $50 voucher, we put it towards art supplies!

News Flash: Garden Warriors make front page of local rag

Our Westport North Garden Warriors added a splash of colour to the front page of "The Westport News" recently.

 

Our Garden Blog is the talk of the town of late. There is a noticeable Spike in views after each Garden day as our Garden Warriors head home to share their days activities with family & friends.

Preparing for a Birthday Party

Hit PLAY & enjoy watching how cheerfully & willingly our Garden Warriors settled into tidying up their school grounds... ready to receive Birthday Party Guests on Monday.

 

Our Garden Warriors really relished the opportunity to take responsibility!

 

OCCUPIED Garden Warriors are PRODUCTIVE Garden Warriors!

 

(Garden Warriors are available for weekend work by parental arrangement... minimal charge out rate...sorry Garden Warriors but the evidence is building up & your parents have taken note!)

Garden Warriors in Action around North School

 Westport North School is turning the Grand old age of 70 this Monday, rumour has it that there will be cake and a few guests about the place...

...eek!

Our front gardens could use a tidy!

 Garden Warrior Super Hero's to the rescue...

Never SHY...once again our Garden Warriors deliver!

 

Watch this space as our Warriors were quite inspired to develop a garden sculpture from this barrow load of cabbage tree!