Our last blog

Our cheque all $127.40 of it!

The smiling faces of 9TA!

BLOGGERS REVEALED...Pearl and Anri...GASP!

Alas farewell faithful followers. This is the last time we shall enlighten you with our voyage into the realms of gardening. But NO it is not the end of Dargaville High schools gardens! We will continue to harvest our bountiful vegetables. Our fingers will remain green, our gumboots will remain muddy and our hearts will remain forever with our gardens. We are proud to say that we have encouraged many to carry the flame and grow their own gardens in the quest for a greener land. And so in this final script we raise our goblets of foliage to Tui for giving us the opportunity to be Awesometastical gardeners (yes awesometastical is a word) and so we cry in a final cheer "HUZZAH HUZZAH" but you have not seen the last of DHS...

The Jungle

We came back from our holidays to see our lovely gardens had become a JUNGLE!!! (in the jungle the mighty jungle, the rabbit feasts tonight! if you want to watch Pat and Stanley perform click here... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvsQ9hYKq7c) Some plants had been attacked yet again by snails and other furry critters. Our poor Kohlrabi... it looks nothing like the pictures on the internet :-( I'm sure some wascilly wabbit is relishing with a full belly. The weeds were HUGE-ish and we spent an entire lesson weeding. While we were able to harvest twelve bags of salad some plants had gone to seed in our absence (hence, Anri's 'fail' picture below).

We raised twenty eight dollars by selling our salad while Anri (like UNRE-liable) held a bake sale which raised a further twenty four dollars, and our teacher Miss Collin said she would match what ever we donate. All this money will go towards Kaiapoi High School. They have contacted us and said they will spend the donations on our favourite project...SLIME! Plus they were inspired by our project and may starting their own school gardens!

We've had to work diligently because of our lack of class time... sadly, growing plants isn't the only thing we learn in science :-( Everyone cheers when Miss Collin tells us we're going to the gardens for the lesson. Yipeee! No writing. No messes to clean in lab. No listening to the teacher talk. Just the crisp spring breeze and some muddy hands to contend with up at the gardens...


Pearls crunchy cabbages!

Luxurious lettuce!

Dillons bountiful beans!

Sarahs ravishing radishes

Ca-Ca-CABBAGES!!!!!

Anris Epic fail!!!!

Some good ol' Kiwi inguinity has helped this group along... With our budget of $0, making do with what we can find is the way to go! With some help from the trusty internet, we realized we needed to support the soon-to-be HUGE bean plants. And maybe one day Jack can climb his bean stalk!

Notice the big "W" in the background? Yeah, the garden could be a bit more 'secure'. Some of our germinating plants did go MIA after being left outside to get some sun :-( Snails, rabbits, thugs... we sure have had our share of problems. But we are yet to be defeated or our spirts crushed!!!

Here's a picture of the class embarking on the 5 minute journey to our 'patch'. It's so great getting some fresh air after sitting in stuffy classrooms all day. Thanks, Tui, for giving us the excuse to get out ;-)

Another Harvest!

We braved the windy gales today (a massive strom brewing over the Tasmin!) to gather more of our yummy lettuces to sell. As you can see, the harvest was plenty! These veggies were sold on to fantastic DHS staff memebers and other students. Judging from the holes in the raddishes and on the leaves of our plants, something else was enjoying our harvest before, too.

We have decided where to donate our earnings... to the quake-sticken science department at Kaiapoi High School. Not only will we give our earnings (which are already up to $30!!!), we will all reach deep into our pockets to see what we can donate ourselves.

So here we are... gathering the bounty and taking care of the weeds (if only these weeds were edible - we'd be rolling in the dough). Can you tell which 2 are the students and which 1 is the teacher???

The cabbages are looking a bit shabby, but that's organic gardening for ya.

Our harvest

Bummer our post didn't post! So we'll just do a repeat...

We came back from our gardens with joy in our hearts! We had a harvest of plenty, of lettuce leaves, mizuna and silver beat. Merrily we sold it for 50cents or more. With money to spare we donated it to the cancer society on daffodil day. Hurrah we cheered, our first harvest complete. Now what awaited us, we were yet to see.

Alex's garden defeated!

After a harvest. In great anticipation we cantered to our gardens only to see Alex's defeat!!! A garden ungerminated, WHAT WILL WE DO? A stroke of genius struck our teacher. "Of course" she cried we shall start them in the classroom then when they're strong, they'll return home in triumph! To create a new harvest...

DAY 7: The Cavalry comes
As we said in our last post, our valiant cavalry of five determined students charged to the battle field to defend our crops. Armed with shields of plastic bottles, they bestowed upon each plant a mighty plastic shield. They gathered a many bottles and sliced them in two, with swords of scissors and daggers of pins. To create minuscule green houses.And now our plants thrive and grow with out fearing the fiendish rabbit.

DAY 8: Project germination

In the classroom, our seedlings grew a many, safe in their seedling trays. Leaves burst from their seed cages, held up by limp but stubborn stems and anchored roots. Hazza! Hazza! Our harvests are on their way...

DAY 4: First we sprinkled blood and bone on our gardens.

Now it's time to plant!
We planted

- 5 types of lettuce
- 3 types of cabbage
- Cauliflower
- Radish
- Silver beat
- Peas
- Beans
- Asian greens

- Shallots

- Pak choi

Next we placed snail bait in and around our gardens.

DAY 5: Germinating

As a class we planted marigolds, snow peas and tamarillos so they could germinate and we could take our harvests home! To find out more about tamarillos, try:

http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/tamarillo.html

DAY 6: Carnage!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As we merrily walked to our gardens we had no idea of the destruction that lay awaiting...

Our plants lay in defeat with leaves drooped and bitten to death, but a ray of hope in the form of the tops of bottles came to us. Our teacher had an epiphany and realised the humble snail was not our foe but the feendish rabbit that lay in its burrow cackling at our defeat, was our true enemy. Now at this very moment a cavalry has been sent to avenge the plants. They place the top half of clear bottles upon our weak and feeble plants to replinish and give new life to them.

For some different ways to keep away the feendish rabbit have a look at: http://www.ehow.com/how_2058472_keep-rabbits-out-garden.html

Getting started

DAY 1: Planning!

To find out more about this competition, follow this link http://www.nzgrowoff.co.nz/index.php

Our superteam of six highly skilled planters (not) and our fantastical teacher got started. By listing the plants and seeds we had access too. Then we started assigning gardens.

DAY 2: As a Class!

Our six leaders were assigned teams and vegetables that they had to work with. Then we drew a garden log in our book so that everyone knew what progress we were making. Then our teacher took us up to the patches to check it out!

Step 3: Mucking in!

It was time to get started but our gardens where a mess!

So we started by getting all the weeds out of the ground air rated the soil and put on top soil!