Finalist Certificate in Tui Garden Challenge Competitin

November 6th 2012

Today Tracey from TUI came to kindergarten to judge our garden as we have been chosen as a finalist out of hundreds of entrants in the TUI/MEGA MITRE 10 School Garden Challenge Competition. Tracey really liked our garden and gave us good feedback about our garden and the way we had sent in our competition updates. It was lovely to have Tracey here today. Thank you to TUI for the garden books, the framed certificate, and the voucher to be redeemed at Mega Mitre 10 for some fabulous garden tools. It has been really great being a part of the competition again this year. It is exciting to share our passion for gardening with others. 

Barbara. 

How Does Our Garden Grow???

Garden Update. 

October 23rd - Spring is definitely here in Auckland..............wind (gale force at times), rain, sun, cloud, rain again, sun, etc etc......and this is just ONE DAY!! The wind has been terrible this spring. The garden grows but it is taking a battering. The veges are surviving but two tomato plants are battling to survive. Fingers crossed that they make it. All the other plants are growing and looking quite happy. We are eating strawberry's off our plants already......that's if they survive little people picking them when they are GREEN! :( 

Sustainability - selling worm tea.

Above: Chloe filling her bottle. 


Chloe, Jessica, and Ben helped fill clean milk bottles with worm tea today. Ann-Maree made up a nice colorful label which we glued on to the bottles. We have put the bottles of worm on our Trading Table for parents/whanau to buy to feed their garden. 

Above: Four bottles of 'worm tea' for trade on the Trading Table. 

Selling worm tea is just another way of becoming more sustainable in our kindergarten. It is also a way of sharing our beautiful worm tea with our kindergarten families. 

Written by Barbara (teacher).  

Tomato's and Lettuce's planted.

Above and right: Today Charli and Chloe helped in the garden by planting out one of the 'Early Girl' tomato plants each. We haven't raised these from seed at kindergarten but we have planted them into yummy compost from the worm farm. We have staked the tomato plants and have placed a mini 'fizzy drink bottle' hot house over them to protect them from the elements (it is quite windy at times at the moment). 

Above, right, and below: Today Jessica (right) and Chloe (below) sowed TUI Gourmet Lettuce seeds in the garden between the tomato plants. We put TUI Quash round the edge of the garden bed to stop Mr and Mrs Snail and all the little snails from eating our lettuces when they sprout. 

Thank you for all your help today girls. You are learning about how to care for plants and your kindergarten environment. Great life  long skills. I hope that you are becoming passionate about growing food to eat too.
Written by Barbara (teacher). :)

Planting Snow Pea Seedlings

Above: Today Layla Mac helped in the garden planting some of the Snow Pea seedlings around one of the bamboo teepees. We sowed the seeds in August into egg carton pots in TUI SEED RAISING MIX. We have had an almost 100% success rate. YAY!!

Right: When Layla got tired of planting Amy, Atikin's mummy, took over and finished off the planting out of the seedlings. She thoroughly enjoyed spending time in the kindergarten garden. 


Left and Below: Thank you to Layla and Amy we have all the Snow Pea seedlings planted around both of the bamboo teepees. We have grown peas around these teepees for two years now. They are lasting well. 

Planting Spinach

Above: Today Zoe helped me in the garden. Firstly we pulled the old, 'gone to seed' spinach up out of the garden. We put this into the compost bin (right). 

Below: Zoe holding the new spinach plants ready to plant in the space where the old were. 

Below Right: new spinach planted in the garden with TUI QUASH scattered around so those naughty garden visitors, Mr and Mrs Snail, will not feed on them. 

Zoe, thank you for helping me in the garden today. You are one of the keenest gardeners at kindergarten. Our bird pets are going to enjoy eating the yummy spinach when it grows. I love all the help that  you so happily give me. Gardening is becoming a strong interest for you. 

Written by Barbara. 

Above: Joe, Piper, and Makayla planting out the cucumber plant. Right: Connor joined the group also.
Below: just hanging out in the garden.

Today we planted a cucumber plant. The afternoon children helped to plant it. After that we just hung out in the garden for a while. Makayla had a storybook that she wanted me to read so we sat on the garden wall and i read it to them. It was a lovely time in the garden. 

Baby Carrots have sprouted.

Friday 7th September - the baby carrots planted several weeks ago have sprouted. We have the nets over them to stop those rascally sparrows, Billy, Bobby, Betty, and whanau, eating them. We have also sprinkled round TUI Quash to stop those naughty snails eating them. Now we need some nice sunshine warmth to make them grow more. Bring on the sun. 

Sparrow proofing the carrots.

We have some very rascally sparrows in the garden at Bayview Kindergarten. So......we need to 'sparrow proof' some parts of the garden from them. Our sparrow friends: Billy, Bobby, Betty, Brucey, Barbie, Bevvy, Bryan, Butterfingers, to name a few of the whanau, love to eat the new lettuce plants and the delicious tops of the baby carrots that have just come up. We have discovered that if we put a netting over the garden the little rascals can't get to out veges. :) This week we erected netting over the part of the garden where we sowed carrot seeds two weeks ago. Fingers crossed it is successful. Those naughty snails eat them too - but we fix them with special TUI Quash snail food. 

See our sparrow proofing in the photo. 

Apple Tree Espalier Frame Organised

Noah's dad, Matt, spent the morning at kindergarten with Noah. I asked Matt to help me with setting up the frame for the Apple tree that Lance's family gave us when he left. I decided that the tree lent itself to being espaliered. Matt hammered the two steel waratahs into the ground for me. They were quite tall so needed a bit of height to be able to hammer them in to the ground. Phew!!! BIG THANKS to Matt. 

Planting Beetroot and Corn Seedlings

This week we have been busy in the garden - SPRING is here so it is time to fill up the vegetable garden boxes with vegetable seedlings and seeds. This week the children and i planted out some beetroot and corn seedlings. The beetroot along the edge of the garden bed and the corn down the middle. Zoe, Chloe, Shyann, were my best helpers this week. These girls have a strong interest in the garden and are my regular helpers. They are getting good at planting out the little seedlings, taking care with their fragile roots and stems. 

Our Strawberry Plants

Today we finally got our strawberry plants back up on the fence in their troughs. Now we just can't wait for the yummy strawberry's to grow into fruit. We have some flowers on our plants which is a good sign. 

Sowing Carrot seeds.

On Thursday Elliott, Shyann, Charli, and Georgia, helped to sprinkle the baby Carrot seeds on the ground. I mixed the seeds with some dried used coffee grounds to help to get a better spread of seeds. We have planted sweet baby carrots because the children love to eat them. Grow little carrots, grow juicy and sweet. 

Planting Snow Pea and Bean Seeds.

This week we have been busy planting Snow Pea seeds and Bean seeds in TUI Seed Raising Mix. We have planted the seeds in egg carton pots so that we can then plant the little seedlings straight into the garden without disturbing the roots. Lots of children helped plant the little seeds. Grow little seeds grow. 

Owl Power!!!!

Carlos and his family gave us a gift for the garden. Carlos is leaving for school. He is the last child in the MacPherson family to attend kindergarten. Carlos has been the best garden helper for years and we will miss him and his family. Carlos gave us two shiny, silver owls with bright yellow eyes and a bell hanging from underneath the owl. These are now hanging in the vegetable garden to scare away the rascally sparrows, Billy and Bobby, who eat the young plants and the tops off the fresh baby carrots. 

Planting Lance's Apple Tree

August 15th - 

Lance's Apple Tree

Today we planted Lance's Apple tree that he gifted to kindergarten when he left for school. I had a great band of helpers: Chloe, Shyann, Jessica, Stevie Rose - GIRL POWER!!! We decide to plant the Apple tree in the garden where we have two Blueberry bushes and two Dwarf Cranberry bushes. We are going to espalier the Apple tree over the bushes. Where we dug the hole for the Apple used to be the sandpit long ago so it is very sandy. We dug out the sand and Chloe wheelbarrowed it away to the new sandpit. In one of the photos Shyann is sitting in the hole............she looked like a cute little rabbit. We planted the Apple in some TUI Garden Mix, added some worm farm compost, some Tui Potting Mix, some sheep pellets and sprinkled some TUI Slow Release plant food too. That combination hopefully will grow a nice healthy Apple tree. We can't wait to make an apple crumble with our first apples. We love apple crumble at Bayview Kindergarten. 

Feeding the Garden

Friday 17th August - Today a group of very willing garden helpers helped me in the garden by mixing together (in four wheelbarrows)  the fabulous worm farm compost from one of the boxes of our worm farm with a bag of TUI Potting Mix. When this was mixed we added it to our vegetable garden beds ready for 'spring' planting. The band of garden helpers then helped me to mix it into the existing soil in the various garden beds that we have. This should grow the best vegetables in the North Shore. :)

Parent's help to tidy the Kindergarten garden.

Several parent's have given up their precious time to weed and tidy up the kindergarten garden. Thanks to them it is now looking tidy and loved again. Thank you from all the children and the teachers. xxx

Thank you Nana for the seedlings.

THank you to Bryleigh and Maddi's granny for the seedlings for our vegetable garden. 

Recycling in the garden......planting in old nail boxes.

Today, Mikayla, Layla G, and Layla Mac, helped by filling two old nail boxes with TUI Potting Mix, then planting a Mint plant in one, and lettuce in another of the boxes. Fingers crossed that everything grows. We like to recycle and reuse where possible at Bayview Kindergarten.