At last we’re back into the gardens, after two months away! While we’ve been away our gardens have become overgrown and messy so there’s lots of tidying up to do. But…today as we were tidying up we found that Mother Nature has been busy making treasures. Carrots, beetroot, silverbeet, spinach, broccoli and cauliflower to name a few. The most exciting thing was a gourd that Ella and Charlise had forgotten they had planted back in December. We talked about how they were going to dry it out and what to do with it. Would they make a bowl with it, or would they use it like Māori traditionally did and as a vessel to carry water and kai? They’re going to let us know how the drying out process goes and, after more research, what they are going to do with it.

We all talked about how soil is a living thing full of micorganisms that we need to feed. We really came to appreciate this after seeing all the work it did over lockdown to produce the wonderful kai we came back to. The girls had been giving one of the plots a weekly dose of worm juice, and we observed that that particular plot produced a lot of food. Mrs Barr gave us some banana skins (which have potassium and phospherous in them) and egg shells (calcium). We cut the banana skins up and the crushed the eggshells and put into our gardens. We are going to watch over the term to see if our soil improves.

Our Principal Ms Morrisey came over and grab some broccoli from us as she had forgotten her lunch. In the end she was able to take away carrots, lettuce and even a little tomato.

We also talked how the seasons are changing and that the plants will be growing slower due to less sun during the day. A very busy first day back.