The Power of Flowers

Cute Chamomile Companions

 December saw our Garden come alive with glorious colour, just in time to farewell our Garden Warrior's for the summer.

 Corn flowers mirrored the sky overhead, while stattice splashed papery crimson hues throughout the garden

 Sweet peas were carefully picked to add their old fashioned charm to our Deputy Principals desk

 Picking bouquets of flowers quickly became our Garden Warrior's favourite activity

 It was equally popular amongst the boys, they were just more elusive to capture on camera...

What an amazing garden we created last year Garden Warriors, and who would have ever envisaged just how much pleasure it would give, to so many on so many levels.

 

A garden truly is the gift that just keeps on giving!

Nobody who enters here ever leaves empty handed...



Westport A & P show 100th Anniversary

 This weekend Westport celebrated their 100th A & P show!

 

Our ever trusty "garden Facilitator" kindly had a quick whip around our School garden and entered a basket of "Garden Warrior" produce on our behalf...only to have the Garden Warrior's bump her own basket of produce into 3rd place!

 This special "Centennial Anniversary" ribbon for 2nd place should look pretty nice in the school foyer!

Our very fresh Garden Warrior produce included artichokes, strawberries, scollapini, peas, lettuce, a marrow, rhubarb, and of course our trade mark colour ...provided by cornflowers, calendula and edible violas. We also entered our stattice in the posy section.

 There were some fun vegetable creations on display, meet Courgette girl...

...and be weary of this melon tank!

Cabbage crazy

Have a look at our slide show to view a few "extra" uses for cabbage leaves, and some of the fun we had harvesting our cabbage crop!

Speedy Zealandia delivery

 Twas the last week of school

when all through the garden

Warriors were stirring, armed with trowels,

Cabbages, beetroot, carrots and potatoes needed harvesting with care

As our Zealandia prize vegetable seedlings were here!

 The Garden Warrior GIANT cabbages were the first to be harvested...

 ...to change the "coleslaw quarters" over to the Zealandia summer vegetable selection...

 "Quarters" were revitalised with blood and bone and Tui's vegetable mix...

 a wonderful fresh mix of Zealandia green goodness was artfully arranged!

 Our Garden Warriors then moved onto harvesting their carrots...

 and washing and taste testing them!

 Our potatoes were next to go, much fun was had hunting out these golden orbs of treasure!

 These too were subjected to the "Warrior Wash" treatment...

 ...and sorted according to size ready for the pot with lashings of our own fresh mint!

 Hot potato, hot potato...Delicious!

Our day of tasting was rounded off by sampling some of our very own beetroot that our Garden Facilitator had kindly cooked up for us!

What a wonderful harvest, we can't wait to get back in the New Year to see what we can eat!

Tumbleweed "Can o Worms" wormfarms touch down

 "Can O Worms, Tumbleweed worm Farms!"

 

Last Friday our worm farm prizes were delivered to school, instructions were read and farms were assembled enthusiastically!

 Our garden Warriors were VERY fascinated by the coconut bricks, and the prospect of these bricks swelling to 5 times their original size ...in a mere 15 minutes of being immersed in water!

 It was also discovered that Tumbleweed worm farm lids make worthy "Captain America" shields!

Our Local kindy has kindly offered some of their worms to help start our farms off. All instructions have been followed and our Garden Warriors have furnished the worm farms with all things befitting wormtopia!
A HUGE THANK YOU to "Can O Worms" & Tumbleweed for these fabulous worm farms, they were just what our Garden Warriors needed to take our Garden into Stage II!

Our Warrior Sweet peas are now in full bloom, and this weeks "Garden Warrior Bouquets" went to Ms Potter of Room 10 for sharing her enthusiasm for composting with her pupils, and Ms Marsh our trusting Principal for letting us have free rein in the old pool area!

Alfresco Salad Session

We had a really fun afternoon in the Garden today whipping up some salads with our Garden Warriors. They needed replenishing after a morning of swimming sports!

We hope you enjoy our video.

 

Has anyone else noticed yet that we have only skipped a couple of Garden Sessions these last 2 terms due to rain...it always rains on the Coast...yeah right!

Tui Primary School Category Winners

 Westport North School Garden Warriors take out the Tui School Challenge,

Primary School Category!

 

Today we had an extra special garden session, not only did the local Kindy kids come down for an explore of our Award wining garden, but we were hosting Bryan from Tui,

and Mitre 10's Francie.

 Budding Master Chef's were evident as a quick parsley pesto was whipped up for Garden Warrior tasting platters for our guests....

 A couple of our special Katikati Avocados were mashed into guacamole submission by our Warriors...

 ...celery sticks were harvested for dipping duty, and I see carrots were also proudly lined up on display and latter devoured!

The word "Garnish" was on every Warrior's lips as they wholeheartedly embraced the concept of "Decorating your food" with edible colour!

 Our celebratory guests Bryan and Francie really enjoyed seeing and tasting, the continued growth of our garden and delivering our generous prizes. WE can't wait to implement Stage two of our garden plans now that we have more available resources, thanks to the generosity of Tui and Mitre 10. The impact the garden has had in our community has been huge.

 Our Garden Facilitator had a few awards of her own to give out to our Garden Warriors for "Cultivating Excellence" in our garden!

 Trent has been a HUGE force in our Garden and was the very PROUD recipient of his very own book recording his HUGE contribution to the Garden & School.

 One of our most committed Garden Warriors who has regularly been first through the gate every lunchtime, Samantha Rose also got her very own photo book of her Garden Journey.

 Well done to ALL our Garden Warriors who have "Cultivated Excellence" in our Garden, Mrs Marsh, the entire Teaching staff and your "Garden Facilitators" are very proud of what you have collectively achieved these last 2 terms. We hope you enjoy the copies of these special books that will be in your library.

 To thank Tui for providing such a wonderful opportunity in the form of "The School Garden Challenge" ...we thought a "Tui tree" would be the perfect enhancement to our Garden!

 We all really enjoyed digging a hole and planting this Kowhai (thank you Paper 4 trees & Holcim) at the entrance to our Garden to welcome Tui's and Warriors.

Our Principal got the coveted task of placing the final soil around it.

Well done Garden Warriors, a garden for now and the future!