Glen Taylor Garden Project
Posted by Chris Herlihy & Miles Cain
The Glen Taylor Garden Project is in full bloom.
In early 2015 St Johns Rotary promoted the idea of creating a vegetable garden at Glen Taylor School.
After consultation with the principal, Chris Herlihy and his staff, we set about raising funds and designing the gardens. The club applied for and received a District Grant from Rotary Foundation plus were generously supported by local charity funds and a building supplier.
In October 2015 members of the St Johns Rotary club started on creating the first garden which involved preparing the soil, building sectional plots with side access, and installing automatic irrigation. By summer the garden was ready for planting.
In April 2016 we finished building the second stage of the garden. Chris Herlihy’s sister arranged a corporate working bee, bringing along a team from Custom Fleet who completed the gardens and filled them with good garden mix.
The gardens and now all planted out by the various classroom.
Photos tell the story.
Glen Taylor's inquiry focus for the year is "Change". The garden project has given us a real experience to offer the students and our Term 2 Inquiry was "Grow, Grow, Grow". Here we looked at how plants grow and what sort of environment different fruits and vegetables need to grow successfully. The students asked questions and researched their answers before deciding on what winter veges to grow in their class gardens. It made the whole exercise really authentic as the students have been able to see their veges grow. I am sure you will all agree actually growing your own veges and tending to the gardens regularly is a much better way of learning than just reading about it. Our Term 3 Inquiry is "Future Focus" so we will now be able to think about what we can do with our veges and look at ways people can make a career out of gardening. Without the support of Rotary we would not have been able to run such a successful programme and with the kids taking ownership of their gardens we will be able to sustain them for many years to come. I know I am already looking forward to the summer crop!! On behalf of the whole GTS whanau I would like to thank Rotary for all their wonderful support and back breaking work getting us to where we are today. Perhaps you could all pop in for some soup soon!