The Harvest

Over the winter our veges have been slowly growing! This week we were able to harvest some of our vegetables. The broccoli was enormous and the cabbages are going to be giants too but the celery is not so successful. We were pleased to hear that the Juniors have been keeping an eye out for great white butterflies in our garden and have been frequently swooping around with a net!
It was sad to see some damage to the plants as the lupin garden has been partly flattened, the rhubarb pulled out (we replanted it so hope it survives) and some broccoli broken.
We plan to make a pot of soup with some of the produce.

Composting / Worm Farm Workshop

On Tuesday 24th June we were lucky to have Sarah Langi from The  Nelson Environment Centre at school. Sarah talked to the Envirogroup about worms and how to keep a healthy worm farm. She had a worm farm to show us with the scrap layer, compost produced by the worms and also the last container that collected worm juice or 'liquid gold'! We were able to have a close encounter with some of the worms.

After that we learnt about how to keep a healthy compost bin with layers of green and brown waste. Sarah brought a brand new black plastic compost bin that was donated by the Nelson City Council to us. The Envirogroup put the compost bin together, screwing in the nuts and bolts, then carried it out to the site next to the old bin (which will now be able to 'cook' as the new compost bin gets underway). We got the new compost started adding green and brown layers and also checked on our worm cafe to make sure all was working well.

A big thank you to Sarah for her help and the Envirogroup for their focus and hard work.

Check out some photos of our productive afternoon.

The Envirogroup at Work

On 21st May the Envirogroup had their second meeting and in the afternoon had a working bee to dig over and weed the existing raised garden beds. After that we sowed lupin seeds in one bed as a nitrogen-fixing crop and in the other we planted cabbage, broccoli and celery seedlings. We also planted a rhubarb plant in one of the tyres so look out for some yummy rhubarb desserts in the future!
The other task was to put together our 'Worm Cafe' which is now up and running, thanks to Farmer Brown in Richmond who provided us with worms free of charge.
We plan on getting all classes interested in making a bird feeder and some of the senior students are researching plans for us.
Watch this space!

Birchwood Envirogroup 2014

We have formed a group of enthusiastic students from Rooms 4 - 11 to work on Enviroschools projects this year. We have already had 2 meetings. The first was on 26th March and many issues were discussed including the following............
* Plantings of veges, herbs, shrubs and fruit trees around the school
* Doing a beach clean-up at Monaco
* Making bird feeders and putting them in the school grounds
* Buying a worm farm and getting it established
* Using existing compost
* Making recycled furniture for the decks
* Individual planter boxes for each class to plant out as they wish

The Envirogroup is......
Charlotte and Amber from Room 11
Riley and Zanthy from Room 10
Tristan and Jiselle from Room 9
Maia and Kayla from Room 8
Milla and Flynn from Room 7
Mani Room 6
Maya Room 5
Hadlee Room 4
Teacher in charge of Enviroschools, Jan Tennet.

We have already received a grant of $250 from the Nelson City Council to buy our worm farm and seedlings and have applied to other businesses for funding. We are also hoping to get financial help from Birchwood Home and Schools.