Piopio Primary principal, Sue Coyle, with students Willow and Rosie Barnsdall
Ask how Piopio Primary School’s garden grows and the answer is: much better now.
Since the hard mahi of students, staff and contractors came to fruition towards the end of the year, the school is now set to produce more produce more sustainably through additions to its gardens.
The school is now putting new raised garden beds, compost bins and a greenhouse to good use, the school’s principal Sue Coyle told The News.
“We replaced our old beds with seven new raised gardens – we now have a garden for each class so they will be able to plan their planting and growing,” she said. “With the new, large compost bins we intend to make use of scraps from the school to make our own compost.”
The greenhouse will be of particular benefit. “It will be used for growing produce year-round,” Coyle said. “We can raise plants from seeds, cutting costs, and students will learn about the growing process from start to finish.”
With input from the students, the yield from the gardens will increase allowing more crops of veggies ranging from zucchini, silverbeet and radishes to peas, pumpkins and potatoes.
The greenhouse will likely be called into service for tomatoes, cucumbers, celery and many other vegetables as well, Coyle said.
“The produce will help supply the community cupboard in Piopio and the tamariki will have the opportunity to taste what they have grown.
In past years, we also used food for our Matariki celebrations.”
While children from rural homes may tend to have a little more gardening knowledge, there is always something to learn.
“Some know about the food but understanding when to plant and harvest has been a learning curve, and junior tamariki have been learning about which months certain veggies are in season,” said Coyle.
“Eventually, it would be good to teach them about preserving and creating meals too.”
As Piopio Primary is part of the Enviroschools’ programme, sustainability is a common watchword.
“One of our strategic goals is to: ‘nurture our love of our place in the world.’ We’re active members of the Piopio community, we understand the importance of our environment and looking after what we have,” said Coyle.
“In 2025 we became an Enviroschool because we want to be good caretakers of our environment – the new garden area is part of this plan.”
Comments are closed.