Small but Mighty: Our Sunflower Blooms!

It’s official that the school garden has a new star. After a summer so hot that even the watering cans were sweating, our resident sunflower has finally bloomed!

Now, we know what you’re thinking. Usually, sunflowers are famous for looking down on us like leafy basketball players. Ours, however, has chosen a different path. Standing proudly at just about one metre tall, it decided to focus on quality rather than quantity. It’s not "short" it’s just efficient! While it might not be towering over the teachers, it braved the scorching January heat and came out swinging with a bright, beautiful face that is impossible to miss.

Despite its pocket-sized stature, it is still a total garden superhero. Size doesn't matter to the local wildlife! This bloom is currently acting as a "VIP Lounge" for bees and butterflies, inviting essential pollinators to visit our veggie patch. Plus, once the flower fades, the seed head will provide a perfect snack height for native birds who don't feel like flying too high for lunch.

Next time you’re in the garden, look down and say hello to our petite powerhouse. It proves that good things really do come in small packages!

The Great Sweet Potato Migration: Giving the Hall Some Space!

You might have noticed that our First Sweet Potato Garden Bed has been on the move! It has been a massive team effort starting back last year. We didn't even use wheelbarrows instead, our students formed a bucket brigade, moving the earth one small bucket at a time to shift the bed forward and away from the old Church Hall.

Why the big move? While sweet potatoes love deep soil, old buildings definitely do not!

We cleared the back area to lower the soil level because having dirt piled up against a wall acts like a wet sponge. It traps moisture against the brickwork or timber, which can lead to dampness and rot inside the building. Even more importantly, that soil bridge creates a "secret highway" for termites and ants to travel straight from the ground into the building structure without being detected.

By moving the garden bed forward, we’ve created a clear gap that lets the Hall "breathe," keeps the walls dry, and ensures air can flow freely around the foundations.

Don't worry none of that good earth went to waste! Every bucketload was distributed to other Garden Club projects to boost growth elsewhere. Now, the Church Hall is safe, dry, and happy, and our sweet potatoes have a lovely renovated home just a few steps away.

Pic of the week

This week is a progress photo of the Greenhouse Garden since it started in the summer of 2025.

Level Up: Introducing the Garden Shop Team!

We often get asked about how our gardening program works. While everyone knows our fantastic Garden Club (the engine room of our green space!), we also have a specialized crew known as the Garden Shop.

Think of the Garden Shop as the "Special Forces" of the veggie patch.

To earn a spot in the Shop, students must be in the Primary Grades or be a dedicated Garden Club veteran who has volunteered continuously for at least a year. These students have shown a genuine passion for the messy-but-magical side of things: composting, repurposing items others might throw away, and collecting valuable resources.

What do they do? While Garden Club involves a lot of digging and watering, the Garden Shop is a bit more technical. It requires "Ninja-Level Finger Dexterity" (a much more fun way of saying fine motor skills!). These students need steady hands to:

Fold complex seed envelopes (origami style!).
Construct planter boxes from scratch.
Count out tiny seeds with precision.
Help manage the Greenhouse Garden.

Because this is a big responsibility involving serious work, our Shop volunteers commit to two lunchtimes a week.

We are so proud of both our Club diggers and our Shop organizers for making our garden bloom!

When is the Garden Club?

Garden Club happens on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, right after the gates open. We meet at the bubblers on the Churchill Avenue side of the school.

Garden Club is completely FREE to join! It's a great opportunity to learn to be a lateral thinker with limited resources, get first pick after a harvest, and see some fascinating creatures.

The information shared here is based on our experiences and knowledge, but we are not gardening experts. Think of it as friendly advice from one garden lover to another. Please remember that all gardening activities should be done with adult supervision and that you're responsible for your own safety and decisions.

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