Sue Maynard brought a group of enthusiastic 5-6 year olds to the nursery on Thursday afternoon. The group were on a camp and doing lots of different activities and visiting lots of places. Here at the nursery they wanted to learn about setting up a school garden, so Chris took them on a plant hunting trip around the ponds. Each student was given a plant bingo card and all the children searched for their plants and matched the picture son the cards to an actual
plants. While matching they learned a little about each plant and used their senses to feel, smell and look at each
plant. At the end of the walk Chris gave the group a box of native plants matching those found on the walk, so the
children could plant a school garden and learn more about native plants.
Posted: 5 March 2017
Learn which plants you can eat and those you shouldn’t!
Learn about the health properties of certain plants.
Finish by sampling some of the foraged delights – wild food pesto, dandelion coffee, various tissanes and other delights! More information
No booking required, $5 per person, pay cash on the night. Meet at 183 Grant Road, Otatara at 6.30pm and walk through to the Education Centre.
Posted: 5 March 2017
Honey Extraction and Making Splits - at the Southland Community Nursery, 15 February 2017
On Wednesday night following the monthly Southland Bee Society committee meeting Murray explained how to make a split (which essentially was how to build up your hive boxes by halving the resources – bees and pollen, including a Queen cell). I never even fathomed the intricacies of making Queen cells, the dependence on the weather, and the need to provide enough food to produce good Queens! It made me appreciate that keeping bees is complicated – and then as Murray and Norman (Southland Bee Society members) showed how to extract honey, it made me realise how messy (and yummy) it can be. And well, to be fair, I probably hadn’t even thought about the process of how to get the honey out of the hive and into the jar! What a process it was! We were shown different methods of breaking the wax (in order for the honey to flow out), members got to try the spinning and watched the anticipated golden flow of honey into the bucket! So, bees are not only important for our environment and our planet but they produce lovely honey. It was a great night and my knowledge of bees and honey increased immensely. The Community Nursery Education Centre made a great venue for this potentially messy activity - which was why the Bee Society changed from their regular venue! Thanks. Bronwyn G
We have a range of resources for planting to attract bees to your garden, including lists of native plants appropriate to the Southland Region - see this link for further information http://www.southlandcommunitynursery.org.nz/restoring-your-patch/planning-your-project/planting-for-bees/
For more information abou the Southland Bee Society email Sonya Crook [Enable JavaScript to view protected content]
Posted: 25 February 2017
There are lots of events coming up at the Community Nursery and Education Centre. Workshops coming up soon include Foraging, Nature Photography, Native Plant ID and Seed Collecting, Body Products from Natural Materials and others. Most require a booking so have a look at the dates and workshop information and if you are interested start planning for these events and make a booking. For information on workshops
Posted: 11 February 2017
The Nursery will re-open on Friday 6 January 2017. Come and help the Nursery get off to a good start in 2017! Help needed with potting and weeding. Bring along some morning tea and enjoy the company of others. If you are still on holiday and doing planting around your place come and see what plants are available for sale - proceeds to the Education Centre.
If you are out and about keep an eye out for native orchids - we found eight different species on a recent walk in Fiordland. Here are photos of a couple - the black orchid, or potato orchid (Gastrodia) and the green hooded orchid (Pterostylus). If you see one and want to know what species send us a photograph (with something in it for scale if you can). Also keep an eye out for the cherry raiders - our tree has been completely stripped of cherries in the last 2 weeks!
Happy New Year!
Chris
Posted: 4 January 2017
