Term 1 has seen me on outreach visits, continuing the Southland Community Nursery’s strong connection with Otatara School. I am taking a number of classes to the adjacent Otatara Scenic Reserve for bush visits for students to learn about their local place, how special it is and what lives there. Inquiry and wondering on these visits has so far focused on class tree species, and using our noticing or observation skills. We have eaten blackberries, looked at leaves and bark and spotted seeds. We have seen some wondrous things…and some things we don’t want in the reserve! (i.e pest weeds - check the photos out). At the end of this term you will see a story from each class about our bush visits.
Bronwyn
Posted: 20 March 2022
During March we have hosted three groups for plant ID, seed collecting and cleaning workshops. The groups included Bluff Motupohue Trust, Te Tapu o Tāne and Hokonui Rūnanga – all groups starting up native plant nurseries with large ambitious planting projects.
Key messages were around knowing the projects and areas the plants are targeted for, identifying the plants you want to collect from in the field, knowing what the seed looks like when they are mature and timing of collection and the treatments for cleaning and storing seeds. Most of the content of my part of the workshop used the resources from our website as well as going out and looking at seeds in the bush.
https://www.southlandcommunitynursery.org.nz/restoring-your-patch/get-growing/seeds/
Meanwhile, at the Oreti Totara Dune Forest, Jesse Bythell took two sessions specifically on plant identification in the field.
Back in the Education Centre we also did some hands-on seed cleaning and looked closely at all the seeds recently collected and in various stages of preparation.
Passing on knowledge and learning from each-other is a key part of what we do here at the Community Nursery and we look forward to working together for nature in the future.
Chris
Posted: 15 March 2022
The Southland Community Nursery is supporting the Waihopai Planting Project. We have teamed up with Environment Southland to share our knowledge of all things plants with the students involved in this riparian planting project. Students from James Hargest College have recently volunteered to help with the design of a new information panel that will be placed at the gate of the planting site. Watch this space for future updates on this exciting collaboration.
Bronwyn
Posted: 22 February 2022
Working with the Ag&Hort teacher at James Hargest College (Senior Campus) we covered the basics of sowing seeds and planting out seedlings, getting hands on in the Ag&Hort growing area on campus. The Year 9 and 10 classes started by learning a bit about what seeds to direct sow into the vege plot, and which seeds can be sown in trays. This was followed by the sowing of lettuce, cabbage, cauli, onion and silverbeet seeds, learning how deep to sow them and how to care for the seeds to ensure they grow. Seedlings were also planted out into the newly dug over plots. Discussion with the students included that around the growing season in Southland and the optimal times of years to be sowing seeds and planting seedlings, learning about the equipment needed to plant and grow, and what vegetables are grown at home by the students.
Bronwyn
Posted: 22 February 2022
On 10 February we had three important visitors to our property – pest species dogs, Mawson, Finn and Mica who brought their owners Sandy, Graeme and Karen, to do part of their training certification. The day jobs for the dogs is to sniff out invasive species – rats and mice and weeds, but today they were doing their kiwi avoidance training. It is a requirement for all dogs in the conservation dog programme to have a current kiwi avoidence training certificate to work in areas with kiwi. It’s also recommended that any pet dogs that may go into places where kiwi live also go through the training.
Special kiwi lures were set around the pond track (only kiwi poo and a dead kiwi that had been found as roadkill) and the dogs, with electric collars, walked freely on the tracks and needed to ignore the kiwi lures, which they did successfully. Sandy King had come over from Stewart Island to lead the training and our property provided a good place where the training could be held without potential interruption from the public.
Thanks Sandy, Graeme and Karen for insights into this special world.
Chris
Posted: 17 February 2022
