End of year Jobs

We are preparing the garden for the holidays which means we need to do lots of watering and weeding [weeds take water that is meant for the plants].
Soon we will harvest the potatoes which will mean we will have new potatoes for xmas - yummy.

We have had an amazing time this year with the Environment & Sustainability Group.
We have learnt lots of things and have planted then eaten heaps of yummy, healthy food. 

Thank you to Mr Deed for showing how to plant lots of different vegetables.

We hoped you have learned something by reading our blog.

Ka kite ano.

PCS Environment Group

Spring Growth

There is lots of new growth in our garden.
The beans, peas, potatoes, sweet corn, tomatoes and onions are all doing well. So are the new trees we recently planted.

We can't wait to harvest them towards the end of the year.

PCS Environment Group

Weeding & Harvesting

We have been weeding and harvesting after the holidays.
We picked some delicious Brussels sprouts and peas to take home.

Herb garden

Mr Deed has built us a herb garden as part of our vegetable garden.

Herbs help attract the good bugs and keep away the bad bugs.

PCS Environment Group.

Our Compost.

The compost is a great way of recycling our leaves.
We have been watching it break down and turn into soil.
We are now adding this soil to our garden.
It will add lots of nutrients and help with our spring planting.

PCS Environment Group

Winter harvesting

We have been picking some cauliflowers, cabbages, leeks, radishes and onions.
Soon we are going to plant some potatoes and later on tomatoes and sweet corn.

PCS Environment Group

Planting more trees

We have been planting more trees, this time feijoa and plum trees.
Thank you to Mr Deed for helping us and showing us how to plant them.
We can't wait until they have some yummy fruit for us to eat - although that may take some time as they are quite small at the moment !

PCS Environment Group.

"gardening is like recycling - we feed the plants and the plants feed us"

Tree Planting

We have been given some lemon, mandarin, orange and plum trees.

We have been helping Mr Deed to plant them next to the vegetable garden.

We can't wait for them to grow so we can have delicious fruit.

PCS Environment Group

Winter garden

The rain has come back which is good because we were getting tired of having to use the watering cans!

The garden is looking great because we have been doing lots of weeding.

The worms are thriving and we have added more worm tea to the vegetables to help them grow.

Soon we are going to harvest the last of the spinach.
Spring isn't far away so we are going to plant some potatoes in their place.

PCS Environment Group

Working in our garden.

Over the holidays Mr McAleer has dug a whole lot of worm castings into the soil in the vegetabe garden. They come from our very own worm farm and contain valuable nutrients that help the veges grow.

We have also planted some new strawberry plants and the celery, spinach, onions, leeks, beans and peas are all growing well. We can't wait to start harvesting them.

PCS Environment Group.

germinating seeds

The beans and peas seeds we planted 3 weeks ago are starting to germinate.
We hope they are ready to eat at the end of Term 3.
We also harvested some radishes today - they were yummy - and planted some more to eat in Term 3.

Over the holidays Mr McAleer is going to put some worm castings and worm tea into the garden to add lots of nutrients for spring planting in late Term 3.

PCS Environment Group.

Gardening shed

Mr Deed has made us an amazing gardening shed.
It has lots of useful garden tools and we can store our worm tea there too.

We have also been doing some winter planting.

PCS Environment Group.

Matariki

Matariki [the Maori new year] starts June 10th. This is the time for lots of winter planting, e.g.  cabbages, cauliflower, carrots, broad beans and broccoli. 

And don't forget to buy your worm tea from the School Office. It is great for adding nutrients to the soil to help your veges and pot plants grow.

Growing your own vegetables is often cheaper than buying them; and planting, harvesting and eating them is a great activity for all the family.

PCS Environment Group

World Environment Day

Wednesday 5 June is World Environment Day 5.
Check out the website www.unep.org
The theme is ' Food Waste'.
We waste up to 1/3 of our food.
If we stop wasting food we can save land and be more productive.
Think about eating food that has minimal environmental impact and doesn't use chemicals in production.
Try to buy locally to limit the amount of emissions.

PCS Environment Group

Winter planting...

We've been very busy planting cabbages, leeks, cauliflowers and brussels sprouts.

We can't wait for them to grow so we can harvest and eat them.

PCS Environment Group.

Winter planting

It's getting colder so we are preparing our garden for winter by harvesting the celery, spinach, radishes and lettuces and digging the soil so we can plant cabbages, broccoli, beans and potatoes.

We don't have to do much watering now but those pesky weeds are still growing so we have to weed every week.

We are looking forward to the potatoes growing to we can make some hot chips!
yum

PCS Environment Group
 

Worm Tea

Worm tea is amazing! It has heaps of nutrients that are good for your pot plants, vegetable garden and flower garden. All you need to do is add it to the soil.

You can buy fresh worm tea at the Office Reception. It is made in our worm farm and costs $3 a bottle.

PCS Environment Group

Autumn harvesting

We have been harvesting the beans, lettuces, radishes and spinach to take home to eat.
When we come back in Term 2 we will be planting cabbages, carrots and broccoli.
We are also hoping to get some rain soon as they garden is very dry.

PCS Environment Group.

Harvesting

We have been harvesting our  lettuces and celery from our PCS garden and enjoying our celery with some delicious humus.

yum

PCS Environment Group

Plastic bags

Plastic bags are a real problem for our environment. They cause lots of pollution and are a danger to many sea creatures. Plastic bags are estimated to kill more than one million sea creatures a year.

Plastic bags have been found floating as far north as the Arctic and nearly as far south as Antarctica.

In NZ we use over 22 million plastic bags a year which is a huge amount of waste that can’t be recycled. 

Think carefully about whether or not you need a plastic bag when you buy something. 

Try to use a recyclable bag instead. 

PCS Environment Group

vege gardens

Look at this amazing vege garden Sneha [one of our Environment Group students] has at home.

It has coriander, eggplant, taro, cabbages and strawberries.

Yummy.

PCS Environment Group.

World Water Day - Friday 22nd March 2013

Water is the most precious resource on our planet. 

All living things need it to grow and survive yet only 1% of the world’s water in drinkable.  

It is important that we don’t waste water. 

Ways to do this are:- 

• completely fill your dishwasher before starting it
• only spend 4 minutes in the shower
• water the garden early in the morning or late in the evening so it doesn’t evaporate quickly  fix any leaking taps and don’t leave them running.

And did you know 70% of our bodies are made of water?

 PCS Environment Group

Drought!

Our gardens are very dry because of the lack of rain. We have to water almost every day so the plants and vegetables can grow. Luckily we have water tanks which capture rain water for us to use when there is no rain.
However not all gardens are lucky enough to get water.
Here are some examples of what gardens can look like if they don't get water. They don't look very healthy and the worms will be really suffering.

PCS Environment Group

Planting tips

We are now heading into the last few days of summer and this is a good time to think about what we can plant in the garden for autumn so we can eat it in winter. 

You can start planting cauliflower, celery, broccoli, beans and cabbage. It is still very warm so also plant some lettuce and radishes which should be ready in a few short weeks. 

Don't forget to buy your worm tea from the Office. It is great for adding nutrients to the soil to help your veges and pot plants grow. 

Growing our own vegetables is often cheaper than buying them; and planting, harvesting and eating them is a great activity for all the family. 

PCS Environment Group

Hanging Baskets and Worm Tea

Here are the beautiful Hanging Baskets we have made to sell at our School Fair on Saturday 23 March.

We have also been making lots of Worm Tea to sell.
Each bottle is $3 and you add ten bottles of water to make the mixture. You pour it into the soil and it can be used on all types of gardens and your pot plants.

PCS Environment Group.

Recycling Tips

There are a number of simple steps we can all take to Reuse and Recycle much of the waste that is produced in our school and at home.

Check you are putting the right plastics in the kerbside recycle bin. Only recycle plastics that have the recycling triangle with a number in it. All other plastics should go in the rubbish bin.  It helps if you remove any food and wash them. If you aren’t sure check with the Auckland Council [www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz or phone 301 0101]

Put your glass in the Recycle Bin. Recycled glass reduces air pollution by 20 percent and water pollution by 50 percent. If it isn't recycled it can take a million years to decompose. Every ton of glass recycled saves the equivalent of nine litres of fuel oil needed to make glass from raw materials.

Recycle aluminium cans. Twenty recycled aluminium cans can be made with the energy it takes to manufacture one brand new one.

Supermarket plastic bags are not biodegradable and are making their way into our oceans, and subsequently, the food chain. Buy the stronger, reusable bags from your local Supermarket. They are cheaper in the long run, will last for a long time and will help the environment 

Each year millions of batteries are produced and sold and most of them are disposable alkaline batteries. Only a fraction of those are recycled. Instead of disposing of them buy a charger and a few sets of rechargeable batteries. 

PCS Environment Group 

Some tips about Worm Farms

Worm farms are easy to make.
You can usually buy one from your local Plant store and staff will tell you how to get the special 'Tiger Worms' and how to set it up.
Here are some tips...

Worm Farming

A Worm Farm is a simple, easy to use composting system that turns your kitchen waste into organic fertilizer and Worm Tea.

Setting up is as easy as shredding newspaper (or computer paper), adding a bit of water, and introducing Tiger Worms.

Burying kitchen waste in the newspaper and the worms will eat the food, newspaper (called "bedding") and bacteria, turning everything into nutrient rich ‘tea’ for use in gardens and house plants.

Composting can be done virtually anywhere.

Worm tea and castings are one of the best fertilizers on the planet. Worms can turn kitchen scraps, yard waste and even newspapers into valuable fertilizer.

Earthworms require a lot of oxygen to be healthy. This is accomplished by allowing the air to pass from the very bottom of the bin through the bedding.

Worms breath through their skin, but they do not have gills so keep your farm moist but not saturated as this will cut off the oxygen. Squeeze out a couple of drops of water just like a damp sponge to keep it moist.

Mites are normal inhabitants and are OK, but ants can be a problem. Put feet on your bin and place a tray with water in it. This will keep out any critter that crawls, but then you have to deal with the fruit fly. Place a saucer of vinegar nearby to attract and drown the fruit fly. 

Have fun with your worm farm.
PCS Environment Group

Worm Tea

At PCS we have a Worm Farm which we use to make worm tea. We do this by taking food scraps and feeding them to our worms. We sell the Worm Tea for $3 a bottle to raise funds to buy more seeds and plants for our garden. It is for sale in Reception.

Worm tea is great for the garden and pot plants because it adds nutrients to the soil. It's really easy to use - just add 10 bottles of water to one bottle of Worm Tea then pour it into the soil.
We will be selling it from our Environment stand at our school fair on Saturday 23 March. We look forward to seeing you there.

PCS Environment Group.

Happy worms making worm tea in our Worm Farm.

The Environment Group at work

We have been weeding and watering the garden. At this time of the year the garden is really dry so we have to water it every day and get rid of the weeds as they 'steal' a lot of water that is meant for our plants.

We have been harvesting some yummy beans, courgettes, tomatoes and spinach and taking them home to eat.

We have also just planted some radishes, lettuces and celery.

We are having fun in the garden and enjoy feeding the worms in our worm farm.

PCS Environment Group.

PCS Environment Group Blog

Hi - welcome to the Papatoetoe Central School Environment Group Blog.
The Environment Group are responsible for the Worm farm, the compost and the Vegetable Garden. We also encourage everyone to recycle as much as they can.
There are 12 of us students plus Mr McAleer.
We work really hard at keeping the school environmentally sound.
We will keep our Blog updated with what is happening in the vegetable garden including what do plant in the seasons and what to do each month. We will also give tips on how to recycle.
Keep an eye on our Blog as it will have lots of great ideas.
Ka kite ano
PCS Environment Group