'Impressive innovation' in this year's school vege challenge

Gareth Carter talking with students at Whanganui Intermediate School. Photo / Supplied

When Churton School principal Andrew Spence told someone to go help themselves to the lettuce growing in the school's garden he got quite the surprise with what happened next.

As part of Springvale Garden Centre's annual School Vege Challenge, Churton School has been one of 16 local schools growing a vege patch.

Things had been going well for the school, including the construction of a garden teepee with bug netting over top to keep away pests.

The net kept away the insects, but it didn't stop other hungry mouths.

"About a month ago someone had obviously come in during the evening and removed all our plants," Spence said.

"One morning I told someone to go help themselves to the lettuce and when they returned said what lettuce? There was nothing there.

He said initially, the students were pretty upset, but then just got on with it which showed their perseverance and resilience.

"It was quite unusual, but we felt that maybe the person who had taken it had used it in their own garden.

"I think they could understand that it would be more of an advantage for the person who took them, which was a really positive attitude," Spence said.

He said they were lucky because the community came together and donated more seedlings to plant.

Voting is now open to the public for the School Vege Challenge.

The competition started last year aiming to introduce young people to gardening.

The entries are judged on five categories including best carrot, best broccoli, best use of innovation, best-looking garden and "people's choice" garden.

The overall winner is the school which scored the most points combined in those categories.

Springvale Garden Centre's general manager Gareth Carter organised and judged the challenge.

He said he looked at the quality of the vegetables for pests or diseases, the number of vegetables grown and the size of the vegetable heads.

Carter said it was difficult to judge because there were so many good entries.

The winners of each category would receive $100 worth of garden products and the runners up would receive $50 worth of garden products.

"The idea is to give them more things for their garden to keep them gardening," Carter said.

At the start of the challenge, each school was provided with a starter kit of supplies to set up their garden, including raised garden bed material from East Town Timber.

Carter said the starter pack was so decent that everyone could continue to garden regardless of if they won any prize.

Last year's challenge had six entries and only primary schools were allowed to enter, whereas this year allowed entries from secondary schools, and had the additional five categories and judge.

Last year was completely judged by the public and had one overall winner, Mosston School.

Pupils at Okoia School tending to their carrot seedlings. Photo / Supplied

People's choice voting opened Wednesday morning on the Springvale Garden Centre website and will be open for two weeks.

The voting is based on photos of each garden - without knowing which garden belongs to which school.

Carter said this "anonymous people's choice voting", introduced this year, stopped it from potentially being a popularity contest and gave the schools equal chances of winning.

"The biggest thing is it doesn't actually matter who wins. It just creates a way to get kids to garden," he said.

Carter, a keen gardener himself, said it was a chance for them to learn where their food came from and that it wasn't difficult to grow their own vegetables.

He said many of the schools in this year's challenge showed impressive innovation, such as Whanganui Girls' College students who used painted rocks as labels for what was growing.

Gareth Carter is the general manager at Springvale Garden Centre and helps run the school vege challenge. Photo / Supplied

The teacher in charge of enviro school at Whanganui Girls' College, Sandra Friedel, said for many of the girls the vege challenge was their first experience gardening.

"They didn't know how far to dig a hole or how far apart to put the seedlings or get them out of the seedling containers," Friedel said.

"So they learnt all of that and enjoyed it."

She said they had so many vegetables that the students planned to harvest them and sell them to staff for koha to then donate to the environmental council.

This was the first time they entered the competition and Friedel said they planned to enter again next year.

At Whanganui City College the students from the Learning Support Services took part, and intended to grow food for people in need, said the school's leader of learner technology Phil Hopkinson.

So they donated all their grown vegetables to Whanganui Kai Hub and students in need.

This is the second year Churton School have entered the competition, and Andrew Spence had no doubt they would enter again next year.

"If anything we're more enthusiastic than ever, it's a positive outcome for us," he said.