Gearing up for the Monster Market in 2 weeks...

 Today in our Garden the Garden Warriors absorbed themselves decorating jars.

Next week we'll add a tea light candle and a wire handle to ...become lanterns to sell at our Monster Market.

 

 This activity proved so popular our "Garden Facilitator" had to make an emergency trip to the Sallies for another 2 banana boxes of jars!

 Garden Warriors learnt nifty tricks like putting the jar on their arm so they could paint right round.

 

Could the School Uniform Fairy please slip a preloved top from the 2nd hand uniform shop into this Warriors bag... as he literally "absorbed" himself in his work today!

We would have liked to have put him in a bucket to soak but someone may have asked questions?

 Garden Warriors absorbed themselves in their work until every last bit of paint had been used!

 Nice mixture of Christmas, garden, and geometric designs Warriors, I think these lanterns are going to be all the rage for Alfresco Garden Dining this summer on the Coast!

Great work Garden Warriors!

Our garden desperately needs another hose and some sprinkler attachments now that summer is here. We also need to purchase a yard broom and flat shovel for the sand pit area...and a tap to get our seaweed tank operational...50 lanterns at $1-$2 each may just do the trick!

Homemade hokey pokey ice cream!

 Now that we are spending a whole afternoon in the School Garden on Wednesdays, we have really been working up a sweat...homemade hokey pokey ice cream is required to cool us down!

 It really was quite simple stuff...just take 3 bowls and separate out 5 eggs

 First whip the egg whites until really stiff, then whip the egg yolks with 1 cup of sugar, then whip 500ml of cream with vanilla...

 Smash up your homemade hokey pokey, we all loved having a turn of this...and clearing up all the left over crumbs!

Gently fold EVERYTHING together... and disguise your homemade ice cream as a supermarket brand in the freezer...where hopefully our teachers won't notice it!

Oh how we can't wait until next garden session to eat this!

 

NB: absolutely nothing from our garden was used in our ice cream, we just had to trial the recipe in this hot weather in anticipation of having raspberries and strawberries later in the summer to go with it!

A Blustery Week

 A blustery southwesterly didn't deter this Monarch Butterfly from paying a visit to our swan plant...lets hope it can grow a bit more before the eggs hatch into VERY Hungary little caterpillars... dressed in the yellow and black stripes of the junior Westport rugby team

 This term we are fortunate to have a whole Wednesday afternoon in the Garden as part of our school wide "move it and groove it" elective. This extremely helpful Warrior settled into drilling holes in bottle tops for ...

 ...these Garden Warriors to finish off their Christmas Bean tree. It really looks amazing, with a yellow star on top, tremendous effort Warriors!

 Ever keen & helpful, this Garden Warrior took charge of fixing Room 1's driftwood art to the fence...almost all the way along now!

 A hard working team of Garden Warriors set to planting out all the edible Viola's that they grew, around the edge of our bottle garden. This should looking stunning in a few weeks time with rings of violet edible violas and flaming marigolds, framing our lettuce. Another row of lettuce seedlings also went behind  these nearly ready to eat lettuce! Yum, salad season is here!

 This team of Garden Warriors put in a great effort planting up lettuce seedlings ready for the Monster Market in mid-November. The bottle garden lettuce will be ready for harvesting at market time...so be sure to look out for our salad bags!

 Our weaving wall provided a place for quite contemplation, and an opportunity to discover inner creativity!

 A tremendous trench was dug by these Garden Warriors, and a start made on constructing a bottle edge to our feijoa and rosemary hedging. This fledgling hedge will welcome the added protection.

 Our flax cable drum knitting was cast off and installed over some driftwood to create a sculptural installation, for our gourd seedlings to grow up.

Lets try threading some shells on as we knit next time...

 Wheel barrow loads of mulch was delivered to our black currants and raspberries...this will help keep the weeds down and the moisture in. WE may try some flax weaving through this fence to try and break up the stiff Northerly wind that blows in from the sea...

Sadly we farwelled one of our Garden Warriors this week.

Two of our "Garden Facilitators" put together these flowers on behalf of our school. North School was represented by Burgundy Elysium, the rugby team was there as black iris and lots of yellow lilly's and snap dragons, the West Coast was present in the form of flowering tea tree, ferns and fronds, a few sneaky little favourite lollies and treats were also in there!

 

Now we just need our sweet peas to start flowering so we can give our teachers a well deserved bouquet too, they were true North Stars this week providing guidance to all!



Our Tui Garden Challenge

Three months ago we started out with a back filled school pool  and a vision of creating "an edible impressionist garden that will explode with colour and flavour! By teaming a range of edible flowers that will  self seed and spread throughout our garden over time, with seasonal vegetables rotating through the seasons, and a hope to gradually add more young fruit trees."

Today signalled the close of Tui's School Garden Challenge, and we are amazed that 3 months has flown by. Have a look at our blogs below and view our video of what we got up to today in our Garden. WE think we have definitely achieved what we set out to...and much much more!

The journey is by no means over, and we hope that you will keep following our progress as we work toward the following:

• publish our "Warrior Garden Journey's" and place copies in our school library
• prepare seedlings and produce for the Monster market in November
• host our inaugural Giant Pumpkin Contest next year
• hatch a plan for developing an "a-mazing orchard" during autumn 2013

Appreciating our Teachers

 

Today was International Teacher Appreciation Day

...so we thought what better way to celebrate the last day of the Tui Garden Challenge
...than buy serving our Teachers a lunch that show cases our produce!

 From this huge bin of parsley, coriander, celery and spinach...

 ..a magazine worthy luncheon spread (actually our recipes were adapted from the current Cuisine Magazine): pita pockets (currently in the oven in this picture) to fill with felafel's bursting with coriander, topped with quinoa tabbouleh and shredded spinach, all smothered in our minty lemon yogurt sauce...a visual feast!

 Our spinach salad generously sprinkled with calendula petals...

 This Qunioa tabbouleh was a HUGE hit with everyone, as were our tasting platters with rocket & parsley pesto...

 Garden Warriors donned aprons & were stationed on "meet & greet"duty at the Garden gate...

 ...& positioned ready to serve their remaining Ginger beer, a rough yeasty brew that assaulted the pallet!

 Once our teachers had served themselves, our Warriors moved in keen to let their pallets explore the visually appealing array of green freshness...

 ...nothing was left unsampled

...with 2nd's and 3rd's being the rigour. Once the pita's and felafel's were devoured, Spinach leaves were plucked to wrap up every last remaining morsel.

This fresh green self service buffet, seems to strongly suggest that a "make your own sandwich bar" could be a very popular lunch time initiative?

The Last Day is upon us...

...& this means we are overdue to thank our sponsors, and meet some of the Warriors who have made it all possible...

 There really would be no garden with out this Warrior.

 

Every day without fail our Head Engineer would be one of the first through the gate, bringing with him a practical, and problem solving maturity quite beyond his years. This Warrior would always find him self a task, and set about figuring out how to execute it. Our Garden Facilitator has been quite astounded by his ability to manage a site, and has proudly watched his people & leadership skills develop extensively.

 These two Warriors have provided the muscle behind several of our garden projects, always willing to lend a hand. They have provided a lot of inspiration to our younger Warriors through their ability to immerse themselves in their tasks, and lead by example.

 Two more of our loveliest Warriors, who have turned up every day these last 3 months, providing leadership and kind encouragement too our younger Warriors. It has been a pleasure to have them on hand during our VERY busy garden sessions, knowing they could offer assistance where it was needed. With at least 40 Warriors turning up to most lunch sessions we couldn't have achieved what have with out the emergence of role models like these two.

 The journey of this beautiful Warrior in our Garden has made ti all wroth while. It has been a privilege to observe the personal growth this Warrior has achieved in the Garden. Every opportunity was embraced and explored thoroughly. Many of our Warriors have simply enjoyed having the opportunity to show case, & develop new skills, and work alongside their peers in a different setting.

 This year 2 Warrior is someone to watch... a regular at our garden sessions, we have been stunned by her maturity and natural leadership skills...in 20 years time we are going to be able to say, "hey, I went to school with her"...

 Meet one of our quieter Warriors, who has put a lot of background effort into the Garden. Single handily he has managed to recruit most of the boys in his class, and always gotten stuck into many of our building projects. There is a wise head on these shoulders, that has gained an impressive understanding of what motivates others.

Another of our "First through the gate" Warriors who has immersed himself in his tasks, and gained new respect form his peers through his hard work ethic

 This wee Warrior is proof that treasure can be found at the bottom of the garden...blossoming into another natural leader.

WE have all had a magical journey creating a garden for the Tui School Garden Challenge, and none of it could have taken place with out the kind & generous assistance of the following sponsors:

• Cory's Electrical: $300 Mitre 10 voucher
• Allwiredup Automation & Electrical: $300 (seedlings/fertilisers/seeds/plants etc)
• Westport North School PTA: $120 of compost mix
• NZ bulbs: $80 donation from purchases
• Avery's: our culvert towers
• Holcim & Paper 4 Trees
• Westreef: culvert off cuts & compost mix, dump access
• Awapuni Nurseries: extra generous bundle sizes
• Kings Seeds: complimentaryseeds & a discount of 20%
• Westport Mitre 10: hosting our Tui docket bucket & donating TLC plants
• Westflora Nursery: allowing us to pick your lemons
• Westport New World for all the polystyrene fish bins
• Our Principal & Deputy for seeds & lemons
• The Westport News: buy 5 get 1 free newspaper bundle deal
• Ferrier Family: weekly donations of miscellaneous consumables & sharing their mum
• McLaughlin Family: bags of sheep poop & lending their mum
• Smith Edge Family: for lending out their mum
• Moss-Roberts Family: for also lending us their mum
• Tui for starting us off on this amazing journey

A huge THANK YOU from the bottom of each and EVERY Garden Warrior's heart!

Creating Garden "BLING"...

 Today in our lunch Garden session our ever creative Garden Warriors let their creativity run amok in the creation of "Garden Bling!"

 

We intend to add these bling labels to tin cans of basil and coriander, they will be on sale at the Monster Market in November so reserve yours now as they are rather irresistible!

 

What kitchen window sill would not be enhanced by a tin of our BLING labelled herbs?

 The Garden Warriors have really embraced our Garden Art Days and completely engross themselves in their tasks.

 

We used bike spokes kindly donated and collected for us by Pete at Toyworld & Sports, copper wire off cuts kindly donated by MR Allwiredup, and assorted buttons from our lovely ladies at the Sallies, and assorted beads, Christmas cracker novelties & other miscellaneous junk up cycled from the bedroom floor of a couple of our Garden Warriors...

 Magpie bling was threaded on the copper wire and then hooked onto the tin can lids...

 Tin can lids were then attached to the "shepherds Hooks" we made from the bike spokes...total budget $0.00!

 Garden "Bling" sprouted up all over our garden...

Even our carrots got "blinged"!