Waimakariri Libraries celebrated spring with sustainability workshops across the district

Nā to rourou, nā taku rourou, ka ora ai te iwi

With your food basket and my food basket, the people will thrive

We offered workshops, in collaboration with Lesley Ottey from Eco Educate, to schools across the district in term 4. The students experienced stories and activities related to sustainability on Story Box Library and learned how to use recycled materials to create envelopes to store seeds, and containers to plant seeds. As part of the workshop tamariki took home seeds for their families and to also plant in their school gardens.

We worked with over 130 students and one of the highlights was a workshop with View Hill School, who were fully engaged in the session. Their enthusiasm led to digging over the school garden, and the phrase many hands make light work, was put to use, with over 20 tamariki working with rakes, spades, hoes, and hands to prepare the soil.

There was a horse paddock over the fence and the tamariki filled a wheelbarrow of manure to use as fertiliser on the garden beds, and then planted two garden beds.

Together they sowed celery, spinach, peas, bush beans, pumpkins, parsley, and parsnips.

In addition to the school workshops, we held evening sessions in Oxford, Kaiapoi, and Rangiora to connect with local gardening and community groups, discover tips and tricks on how to grow fruit and vegetables from local experts, and gain knowledge about seed saving, and seed raising.

Waimakariri Libraries were delighted to showcase the important work by the following community groups, who shared their expertise and wisdom during our sessions: Eco Educate, Kaiapoi Food Forest, Kaiapoi Gardening Club, Time Bank Waimakariri, and Rangiora Food Swap.