The main project for this term was food - food waste and food production!

We conducted an audit of food waste collected over two weeks. Students collected food waste from student morning teas and lunches, the canteen and foods department contributed their waste, and the staff put their food waste (and many many teabags) into the bokashi bucket in the staffroom (see http://www.zingbokashi.co.nz/). We gathered about 100 litres of food waste, which fitted nicely into the compost bin we already have. We expect we will need another couple of composting bins if we are to use ‘home-grown’ waste for our gardens.

We also toured the school grounds, looking for suitable sites for vegetable gardens, and fruit and berry bushes. Our first planned project is raised beds in front of the canteen, close to point of use!

Mrs Beaman and her Science girls have made good use of the glasshouse, which is now home to dozens of their young kowhai seedlings. There is also now an automatic watering system, which means we can continue to grow plants there even over the holidays. Today the kowhais were joined by tomato (black cherry), lettuce and scarlet runner bean seed sowings! Spring is on the way!