vegetables | Holy Cross School Papatoetoe

The Papatoetoe Community Gardens

27 March 2019 · by Miss Skipper

Did you know that tucked in next to New World in Papatoetoe is a wonderful greenspace called the Papatoetoe Community Gardens where you can rent a plot of land and grow things to your heart’s content.

There are experts there who can help you learn. We went and learned how to get the soil ready for plants to grow, we learnt about sewing seeds, we learnt about how to keep pests away.

We saw gardeners with tools, vegetables, inventions, seeds and so much more just a walk away from Holy Cross School.

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Visiting the Papatoetoe Teaching Gardens

29 August 2018 · by Mrs de Koning

What a lovely day we had Week 6 walking to the Papatoetoe Teaching gardens.

First we saw how to make a delicious omelette using fresh eggs and vegetables straight from the garden. we especially loved seeing the spiraliser which cut the courgette into long spirals like noodles!

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Then we planted some bean seeds!

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We learned about different types of gardening tools too!

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We looked around the garden and named the different flowers and vegetables. Below is Mrs B’s group.

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below is Mrs de Koning’s Group.

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Thank you to the team from the Teaching Gardens for giving us their time and sharing their knowledge with us. What a great day!

Vegetable in the Garden – describing them

31 October 2017 · by Mrs de Koning

Mrs Bucheler took us out into the Mercy Gardens. we looked again at how our vegetables were growing. We walked about their colours and shapes. We compared them to other things we knew. We thought cabbages looked like big green flowers! the broccoli was just like little green trees.

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Next Mrs Bucheler showed us the vegetables she had bough to bring to school. We were amazed to see the bunch of orange carrots with their green leafy tops still on and the purple carrots too!

It is believed that long ago all carrots were purple, but people have selectively grown them until they were orange!! We compared the different types of carrots too.

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We liked the time in the garden. We will write a story about the vegetables and describe our favourite one tomorrow!!

Watering our Mercy Gardens

24 August 2017 · by Mrs de Koning

We had several warm, sunny days with no rain so Mrs de Koning took a group of students to the Mercy Gardens to water the plants they had put in a week or so ago.

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We want the plants to grow big and strong. We hope to cook some of the plants we grow, or give them to someone who we can help, so they can enjoy the lovely healthy vegetables. We also hope to enjoy looking at the bright, colourful flowering polyanthus plants which we put into some tyres to grow.

Planting the Mercy Gardens

10 August 2017 · by Mrs de Koning

Once we had weeded the Mercy gardens we wanted to plant them. Mrs de Koning bought some vegetable plants and some flowering plants. We looked at them in class adn talked about the different parts of the plant. We could see the roots, stems, leaves and flowers on the plants.

Mrs Bucheler and Whaea Bronwyn. We took our gardening tools and gloves with us. We were very excitied t be going oout into the sunshiny day to do gardening! Here we go!

Next we took turns to make holes for the small plants to grow in. Here is a short video about making them.

We watched each other as we waited for our chance to plant a seedling. Have a look how we did it!

We had to be careful with the tools we were using so we did not hurt ourselves or anyone else. It was fun carefully putting the plant into the soil and pressing it in around the roots to hole the plant firmly in place.

Mrs B helped us all, sharing out the seedling plants and offering us help and advice as we worked on our project.

Can you see that the garden had no weeds in it? We will have to continue pulling out the weeds as our plants grow so that they do not take the food, water and light from our vegetable plants.

We planted the seedlings in lines. The same type of plants we put in together. We made sure there was room between them so they could grow.

The garden began to fill. We were pleased with the job we were doing. It will be nice to see the garden grow over the next weeks.

Come and see the gardens by the tennis courts. We like working in the Mercy Gardens.

Thank you Mrs B and Whaea Bronwyn for helping us. You are both very good gardeners!

Our Visit to Mrs de Koning’s House

11 April 2017 · by Mrs de Koning

On Thursday 6th April the Hairnui Syndicate went in two school vans and a parent’s car to Mrs de Koning’s House.

First we put our bags into he garage, and then we walked around her back yard. We went along the paths and under the trees. We walked over the little bridge and up the hill past the chicken house.

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Next we let out the chickens and they came running up to eat some chicken food. Mrs Green had given us some stale bread to feed the chicken. Mrs de Koning gave us a little chicken food in our hands. We looked and saw the mix had wheat, pellets, corn and shell in it.

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Next we had our lunch sitting in the garage because the grass was to wet to sit on. We liked our yummy food, and chatting to our friends.

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We split into two groups. The groups swapped activities later. Mrs de Koning did the cooking. We cracked some of the eggs her chickens had laid. Then we mixed them with the fork. Some butter went into the frying pan. One the stove it went to heat and cook. Mrs de Koning gently stirred / scrambled them. We put them on a plate to cool and then we ate them. Yum!

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After cooking the eggs we all tried them and decided they were delicious!

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We swapped over groups and the next one came inside. They had fun too.

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The groups outside with Mrs Bucheler enjoyed planting the vegetable seedlings for Mrs de Koning in her vegetable garden. They looked at all the vegetable plants and said their names. Then they dug a hole to put the roots into. They held the seedling up straight as they gently put the soil around it.

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