Glenrose Pippins – 4 April 2016
On Monday 4th April 14 Glenrose Pippins arrived for their follow-up visit to the Community Nursery. They had a number of activities planned – the first being a study of the Rances wormfarm. Made out of an old bathtub Chris pulled off the cover to reveal hundreds if not thousands of tiger worms (they are the sort recommended for compost bins). The pippins were well informed about the worm’s ability to recycle your food waste and turn it into “worm wee” which was good for your veggie plants. They also knew that worms don’t like oranges and lemons or onions in their compost bins! Generally, worms in the soil are good at aerating the soil, improving drainage and oxygen to plant roots, mixing minerals and humus and increasing nutrients to plants and increasing soil fertility. Did you know – there are over 200 species of native earthworm in New Zealand, but the one you see most often in your gardens is an introduced species! Another creature Chris had discovered that day in the nursery was a skink and the pippins got to observe it close-up before it was released back into the wild.
The bug theme was continued in the Education Centre where giant jigsaws of a nursery spider, weta and butterfly were made and then the new challenging tui and flax jigsaw. Other activities were potting up some mingimingi, feeding the ducks and then presenting Chris with a mural made of natural materials collected round the pond on their last visit.
Posted: 12 April 2016