Garden Warriors Shine at Northern Lights

 The end of Term is celebrated here at Westport North School with our "Northern Lights" evening...this is where all the classroom's get to show off their terms work.

 

This Term it was decided to put together a Garden Warrior Display to share with parents what their Garden Warrior's get up to on Friday lunch times...

 Fresh produce was harvested for sale in $1 bunches...

 "Warrior Worm Wine" was carefully labelled and on sale too...

 "Wild Warrior Seed Bombs" were carefully wrapped and a bargain at $1 each...

 Warrior Celery sticks circulated around the hall for sampling our famous Parsley pesto and roast pumpkin feta dip...rumour has it another batch of celery sticks was quickly chopped to replenish the platter!

 Happy customers helped raise $52 toward running costs of our garden...Thanks everyone for your support!

 Tui Fire Starters were walking out the door to start coal and wood fires around our town. Please do NOT forget to fill in the survey (link below):

 

http://www.westportnorth.school.nz/1/notice_areas/1-important-notices

 

This survey only takes 1 minute and every survey returned increases our chances of winning $1000 for our Garden. 

By filling in the survey by the end of JULY you also get a chance to win $100! 

This is a GREAT product that bypasses the need for kindling, and skips that gradual build up stage of starting a fire!

 

Our Garden Warrior's enjoyed showing their parents our Garden Blog and what they get up to in their garden.

 

What a great night, well done everyone!

Seed Bombs AWAY!

SEED BOMBS!

 

 

Our ever eager Garden Facilitator has invested in a subscription to "NZ Gardener" this year, for a little extra gardening confidence.

Just in time the July edition arrived in the mail box and the seed was sown to make "Seed balls" or "Seed bombs"...with the bucket full of "Wild Warrior Seeds" we had collected in late summer.

 A call was made for some clay for a mixing medium to a fellow Geologist, and the local Mining Company kindly organised a bag of Bentonite clay (THANK YOU!).

 

Bentonite clay is a special swelling clay that expands dramatically when water is added, it is normally used to patch up holes down exploration drill holes...perfect for our needs!

 

Seed Bomb/Seed Balls Recipe

 

 

We used:

 6 parts clay

2 parts "Warrior Wild seeds mix"

1 part blood & bone

2 parts potting mix

 

 

We then gradually added water, mixing all the time, until we had a nice tacky texture...

 



 

...then the fun started!

Shaping handfuls of mixture into seed bombs!

 



Many mucky hands make light work!

Every last smudge of seed mixture was fashioned into a "seed Bomb"!

Great effort Garden Warriors, we now have about 100 hot coloured "Seed Bombs" ready to explode a riotous mixture of calendula, Marigold, Viola, Sweet pea and Viscaria!

 

We shall have our "Seed Bombs" on sale at our Northern Lights evening on Wednesday for $1 each. All you have to do is literally throw your seed bomb at the garden in spring and wait for your delayed explosion of colour!

 



Skirmish Over Brussel Sprouts

News Flash: Myth Busted, Kids EAT Brussel Sprouts!

 

A lunch time Garden Session does not go buy without our Garden Warriors asking "what can we take home today"?

A couple of weeks ago there was a veritable stampede for the garden gate as the bell went... to pluck a handful of brussel sprouts to proudly take home!

 Winter has not kept our Garden Warriors out of their Garden, interest and enthusiasm continues, even for general tidying up!

 Out came our fabulous broccicauli, and in went the lupin seeds, to be covered by pea straw.

Unfortunately Whetu Te Weka has found access to our garden again and had a wonderful time skritching and scratching...and gobbling up ALL our lupin seeds!

 

Not a single lupin survived so our Garden Facilitator has had to secretly sow some more and cover them well with soil...so hopefully we shall see some starting to sprout soon!

 Here are our Brussel Sprouts that started a riot!

Out went the last of the cocktail tomato's too, a few got tasted and a few got squirted!

 All hands were on deck.

 Winter has not stopped a few self sown seeds from popping up around our garden.

Here is happy calendula getting ready for a hot summer display!

 Viola's and coriander have also been spotted sprouting up in unusual places...

 ...some calendula and viola seedlings were careful transplanted into Sophie's garden to surprise her next week...she will be delighted!

Another VERY successful Garden Session with our Warrior's, Mr Lego Policeman.

Now just keep an eye out for Whetu Te Weka for us!