Maoribank School Garden

School garden update

• School name: Maoribank School
• Region: Upper Hutt, Wellington

Planning

We helped plan our garden with Mel, our Garden to Table helper. We went with some of Mel’s ideas and some of our own ideas.

When deciding what to plant we thought of the crops we would like to use in our cooking.

Planting

Our garden is just starting to grow but we have planted a number of different crops which we can use in the kitchen. Our favourite crops to grow are peas, broccoli, cauliflower, pumpkin, carrots, strawberries, rocket, broad beans, cabbage and mint.

We also planted blue lupin in bare gardens to get the gardens in good condition for spring.

Harvesting

We haven’t started harvesting yet as our gardens are new. We have split the strawberry plants that were already growing and shared them out with the families of our class so they can plant them at home and enjoy their own homegrown strawberries.

We are looking forward to including fresh harvests from our garden in our cooking. Our favourite recipes are Pumpkin, Chilli & Coconut Cream Soup, Carrot and Raisin Muffins and Pancakes with apples and feijoa.

Maintenance

We have been weeding, watering and applying Tui Organic Seaweed Plant Tonic to our plants. We have also been raking up leaves that have fallen from the trees and are making a mess in our garden.

We had a problem with the birds eating our plants so we looked into different ways to stop them. We came up with using bamboo sticks with plastic bags tied on the top. So far it seems to be working well.

We have been putting Tui Pea Straw Mulch around the plants because we get very strong frosts here.

Sustainability

We have been composting the scraps from the kitchen and have got everything ready to start our worm farm so we can feed our plants worm tea.

Tui products used in the garden this month:

1. Tui Pea Straw Mulch – to protect our plants from the frost!
2. Tui Super Sheep Pellets – to build our soil.
3. Seasol plant tonic – to give our new seedlings a boost.

Top garden tips for winter:

1. Plant green crops like broad beans and blue lupin in any patches of bare soil to get it in good condition for spring.
2. Mulch around and cover your plants when there is a big frost forecast.
3. Find creative ways to keep the birds away!

Check out their Pumpkin, Chilli & Coconut Cream Soup recipe

Tui & Garden to Table

We are excited to be supporting Garden To Table as our school programme this year. Garden to Table is a trust, which runs a gardening and cooking programme in schools across New Zealand. As participants in the Garden to Table programme, seven to 10 year-old children spend time in a productive vege garden and home-style kitchen each week. There they learn skills that will last them a lifetime, and discover just how much fun it is to grow and cook their own seasonal vegetables and fruits.

Tui is providing starter packs to each of the new schools, and seasonal packs during the year.