Tauwhare School vegetable garden

Reported by Sharon Quinn, Teacher (Waikato District)

Tauwhare School received funding from the Waikato Regional Council's Enviroschools Grant in 2025 to repair its vegetable garden.

Students, teachers and community members cleared the weeds and converted them into compost. We demolished the old garden beds, saving suitable parts for reuse, and solarised the removed weeds into reusable compost. We laid a 30 cm layer of bark mulch to suppress the weeds, built the garden beds with community help and filled them with compost and soil.

We planted for the summer using the Three Sisters method of gardening, with pumpkins, popcorn and borlotti beans. We also planted potatoes, kūmara, zucchini, raspberries and herbs.

At every step of the process, the students identified problems or issues and worked together to find a solution. The students designed the garden layout, including what they wanted in terms of garden beds, their placement and the plants to be grown.

We now have a fully functional, weed-free, sustainably designed vegetable garden area. The garden beds have been built, filled with soil and planted for the summer.

The students have participated fully in the project, as has the community. Community members helped us move materials, build garden beds and remove weeds, and supplied a variety of plants and garden materials, such as railway sleepers.

We shared our knowledge and the process we had undertaken with our community when they visited the school on Tauwhare Day and when we hosted visiting schools on an Enviroschools tour.

We baked muffins using the zucchini and parsley from the garden. We also received support from parents and the wider community through plants, seeds and gardening equipment.

We learnt how to use the Action Learning Cycle to identify, respond to and plan a project with the students at the centre of the learning, and the importance of asking for help and support through donations of soil, mulch, time and materials.

The students learnt that all the food we eat comes from a part of a plant, whether it is a root, stem, leaf or fruit. We also engaged in House of Science topic kits based around plants, pests and pollination, which has grown our knowledge and understanding of how to grow plants, as well as when and what to plant.

We learnt to plan a budget, purchase the important items within it and then ask for donations.

As it was a big undertaking for a small school, it took quite a lot of teacher and student time to ensure the process and project were organised within the time constraints.

Find out more about the project at: tauwhare.school.nz/our-school/school-events/enviroschools