21 August

Brennan, one of the keen members of the green team braved the mighty Makara coast in the weekend and sourced a fine array of seaweed to make Seaweed Tea.  

We had read that it was like rocket fuel for plants and thought that as we are surrounded by coastlines we could source just enough for our gardening needs.    

When it was brought to school we put it into a big black bin and covered it with water.  The Seaweed Tea is meant to brew for at least a week before we can start adding it to the seedlings, & the worm farm and the compost bins.  The remaining seaweed will be spread around under trees as an excellent mulch.

Now to tackle an identified issue!  It would seem that we have a few VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLARS!

With a bit of research, we found this recipe for Garlic Fire Spray from http://www.no-dig-vegetablegarden.com/organic-garden-pest-control.html

Garlic fire spray

• 2-3 garlic bulbs (about 6-10 cloves per bulb)

• 6 large or 12 smaller hot chilli peppers (any variety will do, or if unavailable try 1-2 tablespoon hot chilli powder)
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 3 squirts of liquid detergent (approximately 1 dessertspoonful)
• 7 cups water. (Use about 2-3 cups in the blender, and top up with the rest later)

Put the whole lot into a blender and vitamize well, then strain through muslin, a coffee filter or similar. Pour what you need into a spray bottle for use and keep the rest in jars with lids on in a cupboard or on a shelf somewhere, well labeled.

The caterpillars are not going to like the taste of this!

28 August

This week our plan was to:

• Start painting river rocks to use as cheerful plant identifiers
• Use our Seaweed Tea on the seedlings, and worm farm
• Weed and aerate the soil 

Decorating the River Rocks

In the weekend, Callan from the Gardening Gang went and sourced some rocks from a river bed. 

Resenes in Thorndon Quay kindly donated an array of gorgeous coloured testpots for us to paint the rocks with- Thanks Resenes!

Painting the rocks attracted a lot of interest

Our plan is to let them dry and then next week write the names of the plants on them and varnish them.  They will look great in the gardens!

Using the Seaweed Tea

The tea has been brewing for a week now so it was ready to be used.

It was a bit smelly but not as bad as we thought it would be.

We generously doused the seedling in the gardens (which are definitely growing) and added some to the worm farm.

We then topped up the bin of seaweed with more water to replenish our supplies. 

Egg shells around the spinach

One of the members of the Green Team brought in some eggshells.  We scattered these around our plants to deter caterpillars and other garden pests.  They will also add calcium to the soil which helps the plants grow fast.  

We are also going to put a container in the staffroom for all the used coffee grinds.  

With a combination of the calcium from the eggs, the high nitrogen content from the coffee grinds, and the potassium, iodine, silica and other trace elements from the seaweed we are either going to create amazing edibles or kill them all with kindness...... watch this space! 

We gave the gardens a good working over too.  The potato patch is just waiting for some potatoes to be planted!

Look at all these enthusiastic helpers - thanks everyone, it was great to have you all involved.... see you next week!

Tuesday 11 September

Over the last couple of weeks we have been busy accessorising and nurturing our gardens and planning for further planting and ways to be more sustainable.

We have now finished our rock labels and placed them in the gardens - they are so colourful and fun.

The good folk at the local Firestone Tyres, and Ablaze Landscaping Supplies  gave us some old tyres and a bale of pea straw to create our raised strawberry beds.

We filled up the tyres with TUI Strawberry Mix and some of the rich casting from the work farm.  We then transplanted the strawberries from their pottles and covered them with pea straw.  This will keep them warm and clean.

We have been continuing to treat our seedlings to weekly doses of seaweed tea.  The brew is getting pretty smelly but this doesn't deter our keen gardeners!

After the Fathers Day Breakfast we had a huge amount of egg shells.  We have crushed them all up and  drying them.  Some have already been scattered around the plants to deter pests and provide calcium into the soil.

We have also started our scarecrow-.  So far we have used old clothes and pantyhose and some of the pea straw.  It is taking shape, but it does seem to have extraordinarily long arms!

We love our newest member of the green team

Using the greatest wee invention from www.homeharvest.co.nz/, we made paper pots for growing our seeds in.  You can watch their demonstration on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Grjvv1-oNU for more details.

We are growing beans and tomatoes.  We filled the paper pots with TUI Seed Raising Mix and put 3 seeds in each.  When they have started to grow, we will choose the healthiest and snip of the other shoots.  When the seedlings are ready we will then just plant the whole pot out as the pot will just break down in the soil.

The finished products