Digging Into Term 2 2026 at Golden Sands School
Term 2 has been a busy one in the Golden Sands School garden. Despite the weather cooling down, our young gardeners have been working hard, learning plenty, and even doing a bit of healthy feasting.
Worms, Weeds, and Building
We kicked things off by setting up two worm bins. To celebrate International Composting Awareness Week, the kids gave the bins a creative makeover with their own decorations. It was fantastic to hear them chatting about how students all over the world were likely doing the exact same thing at that very moment.
Of course, gardening isn't all art and design; there was plenty of hard work involved this term too. We spent some serious time tackling the garden beds, clearing out massive amounts of stubborn kikuyu grass to make room for our winter crops. Once the beds were clear, we sowed carrot seeds directly into the soil and planted out our fresh brassica seedlings.
To keep the beds healthy and sustainable, we also built new compost bays. These were constructed entirely from salvaged pallets and old bike inner tubes, which were kindly donated by the team at Cycle Obsession at the Mount. We've already started fueling the compost with green waste, alongside coffee husks and grinds sourced from our local roastery, Little Drum Coffee, on MacDonald Street.
We also created some fun structures using the flexible branches from our basket willow. These will provide support for our Snowpeas when they grow.
Pest Control
To protect our young seedlings from slugs and snails in our organic garden, the kids installed slug traps, made from old yoghurt tubs, placed copper tape rings over seedlings, and laid down wool mulch mats.
The Great Strawberry Experiment
Our strawberry patch received a complete overhaul this term. We separated the older plants from the new runners, and replanted them into raised rows. We had so many, we have even planted out a whole extra berry patch! You can never have too many strawberries!!
To turn it into a bit of a science experiment, we mulched one half of the patch with wool and the other half with silage. We'll be keeping a close eye on both sides over the coming months to see which material performs best!
Rainy Day Learning
When the winter rain kept us away from the muddy garden beds, we took the learning indoors. The kids explored seeds. We learned about the anatomy and different parts of a seed, and spent time identifying various seeds and matching them to their grown-up veggie counterparts. We also learned about seeds that are super nutritious and safe to eat, complete with a seed-tasting session. And finally, we watched a short video on seed dispersal.
Important Visitors
We had some wonderful guests join us this term:
Jo and Chris Ryan from Ryan Double Glazing dropped by, giving us a wonderful opportunity to thank them in person for their incredibly generous support of our gardening programme. The students presented them with a handmade card and a coriander plant they had proudly grown from seed.
On that same day, we discovered a handsome little frog hanging out in our overgrown tyre gardens. He was incredibly relaxed and stuck around long enough for everyone to get a close look. During lunchtime, River—one of our resident frog experts—stopped by and gave an amazing, spontaneous commentary on our amphibian friend. Check it out on out here : pocketofpips - We might just have the next David Attenborough growing up right here at Golden Sands!
The Best Part: The Harvest & more Community Support
We wrapped up our hard work with a well-deserved reward. After harvesting four massive heads of fresh broccoli from the garden, we whipped up a batch of homemade hummus. The broccoli disappeared in record time—proof that everything tastes better when you grow it yourself!
We also want to extend a massive shout-out to Nick and the team at Four Square Papamoa (Golden Sands), who generously donated a gift card for our club. This will be an amazing help going forward, allowing us to pick up standard pantry supplies so the kids can regularly cook and prepare food using the fresh produce right from our own garden beds.
Celebrating Matariki - Whānau Day
We also held a wonderful Whānau Day in the gardens to celebrate Matariki! Our big mission for the day was giving the older, more overgrown part of our garden a completely new lease on life. Together, we worked hard to rid the area of weeds and do some fresh planting. The young gardeners loved digging in the dirt and even found a frog, which was a highlight; “This is the best day ever!”
Thanks to Evelyn Tree Services who dropped off a mountain of fresh mulch for us, we could make the gardens more manageable moving forward, while also feeding our soil. It’s always astounding to see how much mulch 30 new entrants can shift in a short time! Complete with its fairy garden with toadstool table and stools, this space is now super cute, and a fantastic place for the children to play—it was great to get it looking beautiful again.
Looking Ahead to Term 3
Looking forward to next term, we have a temporary change of faces in the garden. For the first four weeks of Term 3, Clare Rodgers will be stepping in to look after things while Maeve is away. As a founding member of PiPS,, Clare is incredibly excited to get her hands back in the dirt and work directly with the tamariki of one of our newest member schools. Welcome, Clare!
A huge thank you to all the parents, local businesses, and students who made Term 2 such a success. We can't wait to see what sprouts in Term 3.
