Newsletter: Term 3, Week 6

MORE HARVESTING FUN
Class 1M had snow peas for Crunch and Sip and 4B had a big harvest of snow peas, rainbow silver beet and parsley. Class 2S had a huge harvest of cauliflower, coriander, snow peas, parsley, sweet potato and even  ginger! Yummo!

HEALTHY KIDS MAGAZINE
Our school garden has attracted the attention of the Healthy Kids magazine. We have been asked lots of  questions about our garden, how it came to be, why we all want one and how we have started creating it. Can’t wait to see the article!

Year 4 - Eco Food Garden website

Seven of Mrs Hall’s Year 4 students made a fantastic Eco Food Garden Website all about the HHPS Eco Food Garden. It’s got planting games, a puzzle based on the garden design, interviews with Rhonda French and an animation all about growing potatoes. Suchclever work kids. Well done.

Mr Green the gecko says ...

“Reuse old tights and stockings”

No, not for me to wear, for you to use in your garden! Leftover pantyhose and the like make great garden ties, holding plants in place without damaging tender stalks and stems.

Newsletter: Term 3, Week 4

SNAGGING A BIG PROFIT!
The HHPS Eco Food Garden Bunnings BBQ went very well at the weekend, raising $1283.35. Thanks so much to all our wonderful helpers who toiled at the till and over hotplates! Lots of customers were impressed with our sausage sandwiches and our plans for the school garden. Construction of the new classrooms is taking shape and we are looking forward to working our magic on the area outside the new buildings, creating a beautiful garden for our children to learn from and enjoy.

WE ARE WINNERS!
We are the proud new owners of a playground seat made from recycled green Coles bags. We told the Coles Every Bag Counts Competition how we reuse our food scraps for compost and they were impressed enough to award us with a prize. They said: “Thanks for helping Coles to recycle as many reusable bags as possible in June. Thanks to your school and our customers, over 30,000 bags were returned to Coles stores during our National two-week campaign, which I think you will agree is an amazing result!” Thanks to Victorian-based recycled product company Replas for manufacturing the seat. www.replas.com.au

Mr Green the gecko says ...

“Natural Selection Rules”

If you find that all but one or two individuals in a plot of vegetables are destroyed by pests or disease, let the survivors go to seed and use the seed to grow your next crop. In this way your plants will continually evolve to become better adapted to your conditions.

Newsletter: Term 2, Week 10

GARDENING ACTION FOR KINDYS
This Thursday will see our Kindys get a turn at some eco gardening. We are planting a no-dig potato patch, using layers of compost, lucerne, newspaper, soil and leaf mulch. The plants love this nutritious mix of food and should grow voraciously. Yummy potatoes coming soon to Kindy homes! And the compost has been made out of all your crunch-n-sip scraps. Well done!

HARVEST TIME
Mrs Mamo’s Year 1 class recently taken home some herbs and veges from their garden bed. 13 little parcels of lettuce and chives went home for tasting. Yum. The Year 3 students were also lucky enough to sample some lettuce, radishes etc… Delicious!

GRUBS GONE
Those pesky cabbage moth larvae have finally left our garden beds. Good riddance!

McCAIN SCHOOL VEGGIE PATCH
Our school has signed up for the McCain School Veggie Patch Program. This is a points based program. Simply cut out the barcodes from any pack of McCain frozen vegetables or McCain Purely Potato and place them into the marked box in the office. As these points grow, we will be able to redeem them for tools, equipment and seeds to use in the Eco Food Garden. 500g – 800g bags = 5 points, and 1kg – 2kg bags =
10 points. This program runs until the end of October. We have 200 points already by joining early. So lets  start collecting.

Mr Green the gecko says ...

“Plant some herbs!”

You can still plant in the cooler months. Coriander will grow well and won’t go to seed so quickly. Plant some Rosemary and Parsley too. Make sure they are in a nice, sunny spot to keep them warm!