Term 1 – Lots to Do in the Garden!

We had a big tidy up on the first day back after the holidays. Lots to do! Our tomatoes were going really well and needed some attention as did the rest of the summer crops. Lots of the produce was used through the summer break by whanau and the school holiday programme. Teresa and I also had a planning session for future projects such as an outdoor kitchen and gathering space.

At the start of week two we talked about our garden rules with each group of students. These are a guide to help us remember to respect our maara kai and each other. A garden tour was also done with each group as a catch up and for things to expect. We looked at the fruit trees and compost and tasted fresh tomatoes (and encouraged those that said they didn't like them to try, an almost 100% success rate!) and we also picked our cucumbers and sunflowers for seed.

In this session we carried on the seed saving theme. There are lots of shapes and sizes of seeds and the students made seed envelopes to take some of them home to plant and store. Two junior classes were also given a garden tour with tomato and apple tasting at the end, a great hit with the kids!

Next up on this session was seed sowing. We have some of our own saved seed and some brought seed that we planted in the tunnel house. The students learnt about some of the good bugs and not so good bugs in a great video before we filled our wasp traps that our in the orchard and also found time to plant some leeks and perpetual spinach for winter harvesting. 

Week 5 was spent explaining about our outdoor kitchen concept and the students are involved in the ideas phase and concept drawings so they are included in the process. Some great ideas came up. Our bumble bee hive specialist came today and delivered a bumble bee hive and gave a talk to the students about how to look after them and why we need bumble bees in the garden. We love bubble bees!

This was a wet day session that was used to make apple turnovers, each student made their own turnovers made from our very own apples. Was really well received (as anything sweet is!) and lots of students took the recipe home and made them for their whanau, pretty cool!. Teresa of course catered for our gluten and dairy free student with her excellent nutritional knowledge.

The change in seasons is a big part of our whakapapa of learning to work with our space, not against it. We spoke about the change in seasons and why it's important to plant and sow certain things at certain times, we took some soil temperatures with our compost probe, some great learning about how to read a thermometer and what different temperatures mean. We also harvested tomatoes (such a great crop!) rockmelon, which most of the students tried and also checked on our pumpkins and also harvested some of them. Because it's the time to plant winter crops, we put in some broccoli and cabbage plants after composting with our compost and mulching. 

Pataka kai was our theme for today, the storage of our crops. Early Maori were used as an example of how we can store our produce and there is a plan to build a traditional Pataka kai at the kura in the near future (another project!) We did however build a rack to hang our pumpkins on to store and to keep away from vermin. We used measuring and building skills and then our group pitched in to help hang it in the shed. 

Another wet day session but well utilised for cooking our butternut squash pumpkins into yummy soup! Also we made pumpkin patties and apple fritters from our apples grown at kura. Apart from the rain, everyone enjoyed themselves and got to try the product of our hard mahi. A great example of the circular nature of our learning.

A very busy last day of term, lots to do to prepare for the holidays and the coming colder months. We planted more broccoli and cabbage, and some celery, cauliflower and lettuce plants. Firstly we had to clear some summer garden beds and put all of the material in our compost bins and then use some of the mature compost on the beds. After mixing in and planting our crops, the student gave everything a good water. A whole bed of pea seed was sown for a cover crop, and hopefully some peas as a bonus, and also some carrot seed that had been saved, was sown into another area. A great end to a fast moving term and we are looking well set up for our next term.

Term 4 News

We finally got the garden space tidied up and looking good! The original space had broken down raised beds with kikuya (a rapidly growing tropical invasive grass) in between and all through them, so it's been a big job to clear that and establish a new layout of in ground garden beds with paths of woodchip and recycled playground matting. There have been lots of comments on the transformation! We had this finished in time for the school centenary, and the students took visitors on tours through the garden.  

As it was a dry start to the term, the students helped with a lot of watering, lots of new plants had to be taken care of, and we learnt about why they need regular watering, and how and when to water. We saw the results of this with produce ready to harvest for the students to taste, and cook with, and to give away to the community.

We had a wet day, which was spent cooking herb and silverbeet scones with fresh garden kai. Some of the students helped make signs for the maara, which will help everyone to identify different plants and which compost bins we are using/not using, as this has been an ongoing challenge with others using the space. It is great to see different students shine in different activities.

Some of the other things we did this term were potting up some native trees that had seeded in the garden, cutting down the cover crop (a fast growing sacrificial green crop used to cover the soil and help replenish nutrients) and planted into that, staking and learning how to tie tomato plants, weeding!, always watering and weeding...,made and hung wasp traps (one of the teachers is highly allergic), we took through some whole classes of junior students on a garden and tasting tour, they loved it! (paving the way for more future kaitiaki of the garden...)..

And finally on the last day with the students, we mulched the garden beds, while a celebratory BBQ was in progress, and then ate fresh garden kai off platters of cabbage leaf plates!  A great end to a great year. 

A huge thank you to all our students who participated, amazing teachers, PiPS support crew (especially Clare), Rachael the incredibly supportive Principal, Jo (who appears when we need her!) and Teresa, who has been a massive help right from the beginning and has helped transform the garden and the student’s cooking skills.

See you in 2025 for more Magical Maarakai Adventures.

Term 3 Update

We had a really busy term three at Waihi beach primary school. The weather was mostly pretty good, so we could do lots of outdoor activities. We learnt about bumble bees, and were lucky enough to be donated a bumble bee hive from Biobees. 

We planted lots of vegetables and harvested lots of vegetables to taste straight from the maara, and to give away to whanau and community.

We spread compost that was donated locally to help enrich our soil and planted seeds in our new tunnel house to plant into the beautiful composted soil! 

The construction of the tunnel house was a big project that was done with the help of students who learnt some new building skills, and also a with the help of some parents on a teacher’s only day.

PiPS at Waihi Beach Kura

Term 1 was full of activity! Our brand new PiPS program got underway in week 5 and in just six weeks our gardening activities had a big impact on the space. We undertook lots of little projects both indoors and out, which gave the tamariki an introduction to what is involved in growing food. At then end of the term we sat down with the children and asked them what some of their favourite activities were. Here are some of their collective highlights…

What a mess the summer growth had made! We got to work laying black plastic over the kikuyu to suppress and kill it ready for new garden beds. The kids had fun using a drill to dismantle some of the old rotting garden beds. 

We repotted strawberry plants from the rotting beds into a garden pod as well as plastic pots and bags. Some of the children took plants home for their own gardens.

While we wait for our new garden bed area to die off (which will take a few months) we’ve decided to create a temporary garden bed in the orchard. The children helped mark out two long rows, dig in compost and plant brassica, silverbeet and spring onions.

Seed saving proved popular, with children quickly mastering the art of origami envelopes to store their sunflower seeds in, ready for planting next spring. We saved seeds from a variety of sunflowers both big and small, orange and yellow. Some of the children tried to eat a few while they were at it - the kids are always asking if they can eat the plants we’re working with in the garden. 

Pumpkin soup and cheese and herb scones were a hit! While some of the team were in the kitchen, the rest of our group were outside with Ben planting winter vegetables in our newly prepared beds.

Check out our fancy new hot compost bins! Thank you to Tim and Richard from Carbon Cycle from coming to our kura to set it up and teach us how to build our first bin up with compost.

Back into the kitchen on our last day of term to make some delicious herb tea. Lemongrass tea was the most popular, but we all enjoyed trying Kawakawa and lemon balm too. Ben also brought in some chestnuts for us to cook and enjoy with butter and salt - yum!