Wednesday, December 2, 2020

Rawhiti Schools New Garden To Table Website

Brooke, Maea, Noah and Jed from Tawhirimatea have been working on a new website. Here is the link. We hope you like it and find it useful.

Garden To Table @ Rawhiti School

Friday, November 20, 2020

Garden 20/11/20

Over the last few weeks Tāwhirimatea has been working hard on weeding and lots of other things to help beautify our garden. Here are some images of what we have been working on in Rāwhiti School's garden...

Sunday, August 2, 2020

Eco-Action Update

Over the last few weeks the Garden to Table groups from Tangaroa and Tawhirimatea have been transferring the seedlings we received from Eco-Action into bigger pots. David from Eco-Action also came this week to put up our new sign.
In other news, spring is almost here and we are busy germinating seeds to put in to the gardens as well as pulling out some of the winter crop of swedes and turnips to make some wintr treats. We will keep you posted on how our soup turns out.

Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Tawhirimatea and Tangaroa's Cooking Sessions

Over the last two weeks the Garden to Table groups in Tawhirimatea and Tangaroa have been getting together and cooking some delightful treats. Last week we made Cheesy Spinach Macaroni balls using spinach from the garden. Everyone thought they were fantastic.




This week we made Peach Crumble using the rest of the stewed peaches we had frozen from earlier in the year from our peach trees in the garden. We also decided to bake some bananas with sultanas and brown sugar, we used the bananas we had left over from fruit in schools. A BIG thank you to one of our wonderful teacher aides, Ali, for helping out and keeping our cooks focused.

Thursday, June 11, 2020

We are ready for 500 plants.

Over the last 2 days we have been putting the finishing touches to our native plant nursery. We used the old playground mats and laid them out over the ground we flattened out. David from Eco-Action is coming on Monday afternoon with the 500 native tree seedlings that we are going to look after. We are going to be really busy looking after these as well as growing fruit and vegetables in the garden.


Monday, June 1, 2020

NEW TOOLS!

YAY!!! On Thursday Nigel and Mr Redmond went to Mitre 10 in Ferrymead to buy some much needed new tools for the garden. They got a new wheelbarow, 4 spades, 3 forks, 10 trowels, 4 mini forks, 2 hoes, a new 4 hose attachment for the tap, 2 pairs of secateurs and lots of seeds for the winter crop. A big thank you to Liz for letting us update the equipment in our shed and getting heaps of garden grow from Pearsons.

We can't wait to use all of our new tools.



Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Week 7 Update

This week we are finishing off making more planter boxes as well as creating a space for the 500 native tree seedlings that we are going to look after as part of our association with Eco-Action Nursery Trust. David from Eco Action will be coming in the next week or so to help us set up our nursery.

Check out the Eco-Action Nursery website for more details on what they do.


Monday, May 25, 2020

Garden Update

Over the last 2 weeks students from Tawhirimatea and Tangaroa have been working hard planting, weeding, making planter boxes and even eating Pak Choy and Radishes. Our garden is starting to look lovely again and a special thanks to Mr Redmond for all of his hard work.


Sunday, May 24, 2020

What's Growing in My Backyard...

View the slideshow below to find out what's growing in the backyards of some students and teachers @Rāwhiti School.  Remember to leave us some comments on our blogs!

Monday, May 18, 2020

What's growing in Helen P's garden?

What's in my garden?  Pears, pears and lots of pears!

We have two large pear trees that always give us lots of pears.  Usually, we invite all our friends around to help clear the trees but this year because of the lockdown, my family bubble picked them all!

                              

I searched through my recipe books and on the internet for recipes with pears.  I baked tasty pear crumbles, pear cobblers, upside-down pear cake, and pear muffins. 
 

I stewed up pears to put into the freezer so we can make crumbles all through the winter.  I also made pear jam, pear & ginger jam, pear sauce, and salted caramel pear butter. 

 

I picked all the cranberries off the bushes in our garden and mixed them with pears to make a really yummy cranberry and pear chutney.  

               

We even drank fresh pear juice!  

I'm looking forward to picking all the feijoas that are just getting ripe now!  I wonder what I can make with them.  

What's Growing in Marilyn's Backyard?

What’s growing in my garden? Rapete looks  for veges in Marilyn’s garden.





Where are the baby plants? 

Rapete climbs up the beanstalk and the broccoli. He smells the flowers. 

Can you find a  cabbage, carrots,peas, and  cauliflower? 

Can Rapete eat apples, tomatoes and silverbeet? Where can birds drink?

Friday, May 15, 2020

What's Growing In Kathy's Backyard

What's Growing in My Backyard

We have an interesting backyard because our house is in the Port Hills, so there are lots of steps and terraces where lots of different plants grow. Being at home has been a bit of a blessing as we have been able to tidy up a bit and put lots of tired plants into the compost.

My favourite two plants just randomly appeared quite a few years ago. One is a Rosemary plant which just started growing out of a crack in a concrete wall. The other is an alpine strawberry plant which planted itself in a path. Every year it produces the most delicious little strawberries.


As you go up the steps, there are a couple of grapevines, a fig tree and two apple trees, though they are looking a bit naked just now.

Then as you get up to the top part of the section there are lots of trees that produce fruit- a pear tree, a grapefruit tree, two feijoa trees, a peach tree and two lemon trees. There is also a really large almond tree, which drops loads of almonds everywhere- but they are almost impossible to use, as the shell is rock hard.


And this is all that is left in our veggie garden, a couple of lonely beetroot plants. My weekend job is to buy spinach and silverbeet plants to keep them company.



Friday, May 8, 2020

What's Growing In My Backyard - Alison

To tell you the truth, my backyard is a bit of a mess! We have pulled out an old trellis and garden shed. It is a work in progress and we haven’t developed a lot of usable garden yet. The most exciting part is the plans I have in my head! However, we do have a small veggie patch and a few extra spaces. I have shared a video of the veggie garden. My cabbages had a narrow escape because I noticed white butterflies landing on them. On close inspection, there were about 50 eggs which would have developed into Hungry Caterpillars if I hadn’t removed them! I have also shared a video of my passionfruit vine which has produced about 55 passionfruit this year. This is a bit of a miracle as I don’t pay it any attention except for throwing some seaweed fertiliser over it once or twice in the summer. I think I am an accidental gardener!

My Veggie Garden!

      


My Passionfruit Vine


      

What's Growing in Your Backyard?

The CRT teachers are challenging you to share with us 'What's Growing in Your Backyard.'

Remember you can use Befunky to help create your collage.  There's instructions on how to use Befunky on Rāwhiti By The Sea.  You can be as creative as you like!

Post your photos/collage on your school blog or share this on SeeSaw.  If you have trouble loading photos onto your blog contact Elizabeth K.  If you want to see what's growing in my backyard click here.


Click on the image for a clearer view

Friday, April 17, 2020

What's Growing in My Backyard...Elizabeth K

What's growing in my backyard?

I have a lot of green vegetables growing because it's now Autumn.  I was planing on germinating all of my plants for the garden but I left it too late.  I was lucky enough to visit Mitre 10 three weeks before lockdown.  When I went back a few days before lockdown there were no veggie plants left!

I've collated some photos using Befunky and have added catpions underneath my photos.

I can't wait to wee what's Growing in Your Backyard!

I love the lemon flowers at this time of year.  On a fine day you can still may see a large Queen Bombus terrestris visiting to pollinate the flowers.  I have some wee viola's that have self-seeded...

Freesia's to the left and Chives to the right...

It's not time to grow potatoes but these 'wild' ones will dye off once the frosts come.  I need to remove them because they're in the onion patch!  I get a lot of 'wild' Borage growing everywhere!

Most of my veggie bins are now held together with metal bracing because of the earthquakes.  I put cracked eggshells around my cabbages to stop slugs and snails.

Rainbow Silverbeet and Broccoli to the right...

These lettuces are now ready to plant in the garden...

To the left is a very large Rhubarb plant and I don't usually see strawberries flowing in Autumn...

I grew a potato once that looked like a body part!  I love growing tomatoes the best.  Some of my ancestors used to have a tomato farm in Guernsey, Channel Islands.