Horizons Regional Council Community Grant

Apiti School-2013 Report

This report will show how the above grant was utilized to complete the many tasks needed to set up the structures needed for the system of growing native seed to healthy plants. These will be planted out in the community, school grounds, native bush area and local farms.

The first step was to revitalise the growing unit. This we did by cleaning off the shade cloth, putting in a sprinkler timer, new nozzles and tying up the pipes. We also connected the whole unit to the main water system.

We then we worked on finishing off the shade house. This involved putting up the rest of the shade cloth. We also had to put in a door and gravel on the floor. Mr Digby  worked with the boys and put in a working bench. We also connected this unit to the water system. Mr Digby helped us with this and worked with the children on their planning sketches and what they needed to buy. The children went shopping with their list and sketches of how the watering system would look like. Staff at Mitre 10 Feidling were very accommodating and gave us a huge discount.

  The grant was also used to buy shovels, spades, buckets, trowels and other gear for each whanau group to use for gardening. These are used in the school grounds native planting area, in the forest and in our veggie gardens. We will be working with Natasha from Horizons to raise more native seedlings. These we hope to put back onto local farms and in wetland plantings. We have recently eco-sourced seeds from the native bush which we are attempting to raise.

 

A Note from Huntah Digby (age 11)

My Whanou group is the Expert Plantagtors. We are in charge of looking after all of the native plants around our School and our community. Having a system like this will help us grow trees big enough for us to plant all around the community. We are very lucky to have this support from Horizons. My team has worked hard to get this up and running with alot of support from my Grandad-Hilton Digby. He showed us a lot of stuff like how to build a strong shade house structure. We used levels, saws, hammers and spades. We also got support from local businesses for the gravel. I have arranged the seedlings from smaller to bigger on the growing unit. We also raised our very successful potato crops under the unit!

 We have also dug out seedlings from local gardens and farms to raise on. Some of these we put into our native planting area.

 Part of our growing system is also our hydroponics unit which teaches the children many life skills as well. We have support from a community member and he works closely with the children teaching them many many skills.