Garden club is growing at Dargaville Primary!

Dargaville Primary has a set of four raised garden beds providing learning opportunities for students who choose to be a part of the Garden Club. These students are allocated time each week to maintain their gardens. Teachers Jenny Bishop and Judy Harding say “the motivation behind starting this project was we wanted to give students the opportunity to experience where our food comes from, to experience the process of seed to produce, and provide an opportunity to meet a different interest for the students”.

Garden club member Eugenie loves being in garden club and says “what I find interesting is how the seeds grow into plants and how you can eat the food” and Emma says “I joined garden club because I like to garden and I want to know how my healthy foods grow”.

When asked what would you say to other children to encourage them to be part of the gardening club, Jayden says “I would say it’s a pretty good thing to do because you would learn about plants and how they grow. It’s pretty fascinating”.

Students have used produce from the gardens to make smoothies, sell seedlings as part of their school fundraiser and share their produce with whanau at home.

Energizer Sarah Snowden says “it is great to see the gardens flourishing each week. What was once an underused space is now an area with purpose. Gardening for enjoyment and education is a lifelong skill”.

Do you have a passion for gardening? Do you have some time you could dedicate to volunteering to set up a gardening club in a school close to you? Get in contact with your local school to see if you can share your knowledge with the next generation of gardeners!