Norsewood School students report on productive farm visit

Students from Norsewood School visited Te Miro Farm as part of a partnership programme.

Students at Norsewood School were able to get some hands-on experience recently at Te Miro Farm. Here they share their reports on the day:

The students worked in house groups to inspect plantings.

Planting

It was a warm sunny day on March 23 as the whole school bussed down to Te Miro Farm.

One of our jobs was to plant some strong and healthy native trees. Working in our house groups of Thor, Erik, Odin and Hovding meant that we could tuakana-teina with the younger students.

Grabbing spades and walking to our planting space it was really satisfying to see our previous plants growing strong. However, because of Cyclone Gabrielle some of the trees had been damaged or washed away so we were replanting around that space.

We were planting harakeke and manuka. Our job was to dig a hole in the hard rocky ground, place the plant and cover. Then we put a stake in so we could see where our plants were. I can’t wait to go back and see how they are growing.

By Indyanah

Traps

At Te Miro farm we checked the traps with the help of Tony from Horizons.

The traps help keep the pests away from the farm and our planting. One trap had an apple in it and the others had different bait that smelt terrible.

Our group checked about three traps along the trap line and reset them. We learned about the damage pests do to the environment and why trapping them is necessary.

It was really interesting to see some of the pests and learn how something as small as a rodent or stoat can cause so much damage.

By Zion, Lake and Boston

Listening to a scientist talk about water quality.

Water testing

At the end of Term One, the whole school went to Te Miro for our partnership day. We had multiple tasks to do in our different house groups. Our activities for the day were water testing, pest control, planting and seeding.

We walked down to the swiftly flowing river at a snail-like pace due to the slippery ground. Once there we listened to Adrian and Rose who were scientists from Massey University talk about the water quality and the importance of keeping our waterways clean.

The Year 8s in the group will get to visit Massey later in the year and spend a day in the science lab. It was interesting to take some water samples and look at the clear water, also to observe the sights and sounds of the trees and birds surrounding the stream.

By Kingston, Chris, Ollie and Braxton

The students emptied the seeds out of the dried harakeke pod and into a cup.

Seeding

One of the activities at Te Miro farm was seeding.

We walked from the planting area down to the Nursery and Penelope greeted us with a big smile. She explained how we were going to get the seeds out of the harakeke pods. Then we buddied up and began seeding.

To do this we emptied the seeds out of the dried harakeke pod and into a cup. The cup had to be full before we took them over to the planting boxes. We put seedling mix into the planter boxes and put the seeds on top of the soil. Then we covered them with just a little bit more soil. This is the first stage of growing our harakeke.

By Prophecy, Bailey and Nevaeh