Arataki-growing, learning and feasting in the gardens Term 3

This term in the Arataki School gardens, our young gardeners rolled up their sleeves and got busy bringing life, colour, and food to our outdoor spaces. Every week, students got the chance to connect with the soil, explore the magic of growing food, and learn about the many little things that help a garden thrive. It wasn’t just about planting and harvesting, but feasting too!

Preparing the garden beds

We began the season with some hard mahi: weeding and feeding the garden beds. The students quickly learned that healthy plants start with healthy soil. Even the weeds we pull out are added to the compost, to feed the soil again. The children discovered worms wriggling under the soil and couldn’t believe how alive the ground really is.

Planting and replanting

With the beds prepared, we got to work sowing broad bean seeds and planting out seedlings. The children carefully tucked the seeds into the soil, with as little disturbance as possible.  Now we wait and watch for the tall bean plants that will appear in the coming weeks. We also gave some extra love to our strawberry patch. The students sorted through the plants, collected the new strawberry runners, and replanted them in tidy raised rows. As an added touch, we mulched the strawberries with upcycled wool packaging, turning something that might have been thrown away into a cosy blanket for our plants.  Towards the end of term we planted 3 new fruit trees, two plums and a mulberry tree, thanks to Te Puke Plum orchard and one of our school parents who donated the trees. 

 First line of defence

One of the important jobs our gardeners do, is monitoring the sentinel garden.  Having planted a kiwifruit bin with species that attrace invasive pests, our young scientists check for bugs regularly.  If we find any, they are reported to biosecurity New Zealand, who can send out an alert to local orchardists, allowing them to be more vigilant and reduce the period of time during which they have to use pesticides. 

A feast from the garden

We harvested beautiful cauliflowers and purple sprouting broccoli, and the students were thrilled to enjoy them fresh from the garden, dipped in hummus. It always tastes better outdoors especially when it’s food we’ve grown ourselves!. Even students who said they “didn’t like broccoli” were surprised at how sweet and tasty it was straight from the garden!  On our last day of term we fired up the camping cooker and popped some of the corn which had been drying in the shed since we harvested it in February.  The gardeners were super excited about it!!

Looking ahead

We also spent time getting ready for the months ahead. The students chitted seed potatoes and then planted them in old coffee sacks kindly donated by Liam’s dad at Excelso Coffee. This was a wonderful way to reuse materials and show the children how creative we can be when gardening.

The most exciting part was ‘testing out’ the sacks first, to make sure they were sturdy!!  We did this with a sack race relay!!  It helped all the gardeners to warm up before they started planting too!

The herb garden was refreshed with new parsley and coriander plants, and we scattered sunflower seeds for a giant sunflower competition. There’s already a buzz of excitement as the students imagine whose sunflower might grow the tallest and brightest.

Caring for the garden (and its visitors)

To keep everything healthy, we brewed up a homemade seaweed tonic, which gave the plants a nutrient boost. The children enjoyed learning how natural ingredients can be turned into plant food. We also made sure to keep the flower garden watered, not just for its beauty but to provide nectar for our future residents, the bumblebees, who are some of our most important garden helpers. We are really looking forward to installing our bumblebee hive next term. Our montessori class made some awesome bug hotels by upcycling wooden bird feeders.. we look forward to welcoming our first guests!

 We made the most of wet days too, and moved to the community room, to learn about seeds and how they grow, matching seeds of all shapes and sizes to the veg that they grow into.

Looking back

We have packed a lot into this term, even though it was winter. The students have learned practical gardening skills, discovered how to reuse and recycle in creative ways, and developed a deeper understanding of where food comes from. Most importantly, they’ve experienced the joy of teamwork and the satisfaction of tasting food grown by their own hands.

We can’t wait to see how the broad beans, potatoes, herbs, and sunflowers grow in the coming weeks. Next term will bring more harvesting, more planting, and no doubt more feasting. The Arataki School gardens continue to be a place of growth—not just for plants, but for the children who care for them.