Orchard Adventures and Garden Goodies – Term One Highlights
What a summer! With all that heat, our newly planted fruit trees in the orchard were just hanging in there. Since we don’t have irrigation set up yet, we had to hand-water all 38 trees—one bucket at a time! That meant around five buckets per tree. Go on, do the maths... that’s a LOT of buckets!
Luckily, the tamariki made watering time fun. There were splash fights, soggy shoes, and some very clever inventions for carrying buckets. One group even turned it into a bucket relay! Hard work, but full of giggles.
In the garden, we found some pumpkins and whopper marrows that used to be courgettes before they supersized themselves. We’re saving the pumpkins for a Matariki soup, but the marrows became stars of the kitchen. The tamariki whipped up zucchini fritters, and oh wow—they were absolutely delicious! So delicious, in fact, that they’ve been requested for lunchboxes. It just goes to show: when kids cook their own veggies, they gobble them up with pride!
We also planted leeks and beetroot seedlings, and got winter crops started in punnets—getting ready for cooler days ahead.
One special activity was seaweed soil boosting! I brought in seaweed freshly collected from the ocean, and the tamariki helped chop it up and mix it into the soil. It was slimy, smelly... and oddly satisfying.
One special activity was seaweed soil boosting! I brought in seaweed freshly collected from the ocean, and the tamariki helped chop it up and mix it into the soil. It was slimy, smelly... and oddly satisfying.
Now for the grand finale: irrigation! In the last three weeks of term, Les (our awesome caretaker) and I tackled the giant job of installing over 200 metres of irrigation pipe. The soil was rock-hard, so Les used a big trench cutter—hand digging was out of the question. We connected every single tree to the main pipe, and when we finally turned on the tap... water flowed! It was sweaty, dusty, and hard work—but when that water came gushing through, we felt like little kids jumping for joy!
The irrigation setup was definitely a job too big for the tamariki, but we know they’ll enjoy the results for years to come.
Now with Term Two on the horizon, we’re excited to see how our winter crops grow and try out new recipes. Bring on the muddy gumboots, cool mornings, and more hands in the soil!