The tiny tots who planted the vegetables and were protected by the shadecloth awnings at the Te Timatanga o Te Matauranga kindergarten at Otangarei were on holiday yesterday.
So they were spared the shock of seeing what young vandals had done, destroying gardens, ripping awnings and strewing rubbish around the Williams Jones Drive kindy where up to 40 youngsters aged 3 to 4 get introduced to education.
Disappointed and annoyed, Northland Kindergarten Association general manager Richard Storey said neighbours had seen a group of young boys and girls attacking the gardens and climbing on to the awnings on Sunday afternoon.
"It's gutting," he said, estimating it would cost about $5000 to put the right the damage, which included three ripped awnings, and replacing sand in the sandpit because of fears it could be contaminated with broken glass.
"If they broke in here and stole vegetables for food I wouldn't care," Mr Storey said. "But just ripping out the plants is wasteful. We feed the kids twice a day here and these veges could have gone into boil-ups."