Al Brown visits Meadowbank School

A huge excitement has been Al Brown and his teams visit to begin a new Garden to Table project aimed at partnering restaurants with Garden to Table schools. More than 30 rhubarb plants were planted and when they are ready to harvest, they will design a dessert to go on the menu at Depot with all proceeds going to Garden to Table.
It was such an exciting and invigorating community involved day where everyone was working towards a common purpose and realised the value in what was being done. Well done team!

Spring

We are finishing winter harvesting and getting our garden ready for spring and summer planting. A lot of tidying and clearing of garden beds and surrounds has been done. Our boundary picket fence has been finished and other constructions to support peas and protect plants have been made.

Feeding the soil has been a priority using sheep manure, leaf mold, compost and worm castings, topped off with pea straw mulch to keep things warm and moist. For families starting gardens at the moment we recommend the podgardening website which has lots of seasonal tips and month by month recommendations for planting and harvesting.

Thanks to Gill and Kevin Adshead at Mataia who supplied the sheep manure from their farm!

In the kitchen we have had a wonderful amount of citrus fruit donated, to add to the lemons and mandarins from our own school trees. We have been very busy making marmalade to sell at the school gala. Our knife skills have been put to the test!

Over the past month we have had lots of superb volunteers, a huge thankyou to those parents and grandparents who come every session and to those who have taken time off to make it along. We love having you.