Rain has stopped play!

Well the weather has taken a nose dive and we seem to have gone from summer to winter in a matter of weeks. Autumn just never happened. We've had rain for the last ten days and that means we've been able to do very little in the garden. Of course the weeds are happy, as the days are still warm enough for them to grow and the constant rain is giving them all the water they need to really get a grip.
Last Thursday we did manage to get out in the garden and we had some volunteers, Biff and Marina come in to give us a hand. Some students from Room 11 came out in to the garden to plant some green manure crops and to thin out and transplant some of the radishes we planted a few weeks ago. The students made a short video diary of what we did, which you can view here. The forecast is not looking too flash for the coming days. It looks like we'll have plenty of weeding to do after the school holidays,

Today

17 Apr

Showers

14°CHigh

9°COvernight

Rain, more persistent afternoon. S'lies tending easterly.

Tomorrow

18 Apr

Rain

16°CHigh

13°COvernight

Rain, possibly heavy. Fresh easterlies.

Saturday

19 Apr

Showers

21°CHigh

12°COvernight

Rain or drizzle clearing. Fresh NE turn gusty NW.

Sunday

20 Apr

Cloudy

19°CHigh

9°COvernight

High cloud. Northerlies, dying out later.

Monday

21 Apr

Rain

16°CHigh

7°COvernight

Rain with light winds.

Tuesday

22 Apr

Showers

13°CHigh

5°COvernight

Showers. Not much wind.

What an amazing first term!

Wow! It’s been such a busy first term with Garden To Table, but we’ve achieved SO much insuch a short space of time. We’ve dug, chopped, planted, built, carried, sieved, rolled, blended, drilled, hammered, watered, eaten, laughed, sweated, grated and worked together to learn lots of new skills. We even made it into the paper last week! All these things don’t just ‘happen’ and without the help of others we’d never of managed to achieve all that we have. So I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the fabulous students, parents, grandparents and members of our community who have supported us, volunteered their time or donated items to the garden. We couldn’t have done it without you!

I’d like to thank the parents and grandparents of the Room 5 students, who helped us in the garden and kitchen. I like to thank Yvonne and Reuben Hill and Hamish McDonald for giving up their time putting the greenhouse together. Thanks also goes to Scott Wilson for creating our composting system. 

Andy Moore, who owns Paving Innovations on McTeigue Road, very kindly donated the pavers for the path and for the inside the greenhouse. Thanks Andy! (If you need pavers yourself go and see Andy, tell him you saw this article and he’ll give you a discount! Tel 3493682 or 0252071130). The PTA were kind enough to give us money to buy some kitchen equipment, so thanks very much for that! But the BIGGEST thanks of all goes to the fabulous men from the Halswell Menz Shed - Ron, Alan, Jim and Colin, who have given up so much of their spare time cutting down the raised beds and building the pallet planters. You’re the BEST!

If you’re interested in getting involved in projects like this and/or joining the MenzShed contact Roger Spicer: roger.s@xtra.co.nz, 027 229 1928

We're in the news!

Here's a copy of the article about our school garden that has been published in today's Christchurch Mail. If you want to see the online version click here and go to page 3.

Turning youngsters on to gardening

OAKLANDS teacher Suzanne Wood is giving her young students plenty of food for thought, while happily letting them get their hands dirty doing it.

RIOT OF COLOUR: Suzanne Wood, teacher/co-ordinator of Oakland School’s ‘‘Garden to Table’’ scheme, on the job in a riot of colour.

Wood is co- ordinating the Halswell school’s new ‘‘ Garden to Table’’ programme, which allows students to grow and harvest their own fresh produce, then cook and prepare it to share with others.

It’s not just the school children who muck in working in the garden and the kitchen – much of the spadework for the Oaklands’ initiative has been provided by teachers, parents, older relatives and local organisations.

‘‘It’s a really good way of involving the local community in the school,’’ Wood says.

The Garden to Table concept took root in Australia more than 10 years ago, before sprouting a few years later in New Zealand.

This year, Oaklands became one of only four schools in the South Island where the ‘‘ handson’’ learning tool is starting to blossom and bear fruit.

‘ ‘ We’re using it as a whole school event,’’ Wood said.

Year 7 and 8 pupils are mentoring the new entrants – going into the garden and doing jobs like sowing and weeding.

‘‘It’s a way to develop a bond between the older and the younger children,’’ she said.

As well as helping with language and life skills, the programme lets students do practical outdoor work then gets them ‘‘into the kitchen, actually making something’’.

With the first months of the school year planting (and eating) summer vegetables like lettuce and carrots, Wood and her students are now planning for winter crops, such as cauliflower and brussels sprouts. They also hope to begin planting fruit trees later in the year.

Once the scheme is bedded in at Oaklands, Wood believes it will have the same positive impact as in other schools in New Zealand and Australia – raising youngsters’ desire to try new foods and giving better understanding and more confidence in cooking and gardening.

For Wood, this sort of teaching and learning also plants seeds in children’s minds that will allow them to lead happier and healthier lives. It’s a lesson she has taken to heart herself, recently studying organic horticulture at Lincoln University, and putting this into practice in her own kitchen garden.

‘‘Why pay for a bunch of spring onions or other veges when you can grow them yourself?’’

The Boys class lend a hand

Once again we were lucky enough to have some of the boys from Mr Brown's class helping in the garden last week. They have been working alongside the men from the MenzShed getting the pallet planters cut up and lined. One they're in place we'll fill them with soil and they'll be ready for planting out in the spring. Originally the whole of the back fence was going to be pallet planters but Scott Wilson, a helpful Dad, who gave us a hand with the construction of the composting system, suggested we plant some fruit trees along the fence. We thought it was a great idea, so we'll put some in over the winter months. Once they get established we'll espalier them, which will make great use of the space and that horrible fence will take on a new life. If there are any espalier experts out there we'd really appreciate some advice and a hand. 

 

The Greenhouse stands again

After taking a hammering from the weather the Greenhouse is now upright and looking rather lovely with the pavers laid. Thanks again Andy at Paving Innovations for donating the pavers to us. Reuben did a fantastic job of attaching it to the frame which is now staked to the ground. Hopefully it'll survive the coming winter. Our next job is to put the plastic in place and it should be all good to go.

Taster # 2

This time it was Mr Forman's class to take their learning outside and take part in our second Garden to Table 'Taster' Session. It was a lovely sunny Autumn day and Room 5 were all eager to get busy in the garden. They'd come well prepared in sunhats, gumboots and wearing old tops.

We had one team working alongside the talented Scott Wilson, building our four bay composting system. They worked hard together and managed to get most of the composting system put together in a short space of time. Well done guys! Great team work.

We had another team led by Mischa's mum, Vanessa, who worked on landscaping the herb spiral. Thanks to this group and with the help of Mr. Ladbrooke's class it's nearly ready for the finishing touches. Once it's been shaped, tidied up and the last bit of weeding has been done it can put it in green crop for the winter, reading for digging in in the spring.

Our last team worked with Joel's mum, Kylie, planting out our first crops - lettuce, beetroot, radishes and carrots and some herbs - Oregano, Thyme, Rosemary and Sage. We'll look forward to enjoying those in the coming weeks. To give the garden a splash of colour they also planted some Petunias and Pansies. 

After all our efforts in the garden it was off to the kitchen to make some Vietnamese Fresh Spring Rolls. The students were busy chopping and grating, mixing and rolling. Here are a few photos of Room 5 in action. 

And enjoying the fruits of our labours.

Room 5 were eager to keep going, so we kept on rolling until every last bit of filling had been used and we'd ran out of rice paper rolls. At the end we had a Spring Roll mountain! We couldn't eat them all, so the surplus went off to the staff room and the staff had extra morning tea. I had lots of teachers commenting on how delicious the Spring Rolls were. You rocked it Room 5! - you did an awesome job and it was great to see how much you enjoyed your time in the garden.

Menz Shed come to school

I've been busy engaging with local community groups and a few weeks ago I went to visit our local Menz Shed to see if they might be able to give us a hand with some of the construction in our garden. After explaining what needed doing Ron Huntley and few of the other men very kindly offered to help out. We're very lucky to have the help of the Menz Shed. The members have a HUGE wealth of knowledge and we're in very capable hands. Ron, who is leading the project, has a massive 42 years of building experience under his tool belt - Wow!

Ron and Colin  arrived at school last week to start work on cutting down the raised beds and creating the pallet planters.

Ron came back on Friday to carry on with the job, and he brought Jim and Alan along with him. A few of the boys from the boys class joined the men and it was a good opportunity for the boys to learn some new skills. It tied in nicely with their learning about male role models and the type of work men do. Ron is a great teacher and it was lovely to see him taking the time to explain the job to the boys. It was great learning opportunity for the boys.