Alexandra Primary School’s garden leaders are showing off their work on the award winning food forest on school grounds on Monday evening (March 27, 6.30pm).

The tour and talk is running prior to the annual general meeting (AGM) of Keep Alexandra Clyde Beautiful (KACB).

Garden club coordinator Danielle Dunn and principal Fiona Mackley will accompany small groups of interested people to look around the native plantings, landscaping and edible food forest.

Danielle said garden club is a real passion for many learners and the most common question asked at school is: “Is it garden club today?”

“Our Food Forest will be a rich dynamic environment with a multitude of learning opportunities. Our garden clubs are inclusive of tamariki with special needs and learning challenges and provide another way to learn outside of the classroom.”

Expanding from a small vegetable garden to a larger and more diverse food forest the learning environment is boosted for generations to come, Danielle said. 

Harper working on the food forest

“We think creating a food forest is very relevant for the times we are living through with climate change and economic pressures making food insecurity more commonplace.

“Our vision is to create a garden using food forest permaculture principles to produce a bounty of fresh fruit and vegetables to inspire, connect and share with our community.”

Not for profit KACB works to beautify Central through plantings, outdoor murals and other community work, and has had assistance from APS students with plantings at Lookout reserve over the years.

KACB chair Bev Thomson said it was great to hear APS was one of the winners of the Keep New Zealand Beautiful Kai Garden competition in 2022.

The fruits of their labour, kai grown at school

APS was one of ten schools which won $1,000 towards building a garden to enhance its grounds and a further $500 on completion for its ongoing care. 

Find out more about the Kai Garden Competition here.

The KACB AGM will take place at 7pm March 27, upstairs in the APS staffroom, followed by supper. New members and those interested in future working bees are invited to attend.

For more information on KACB email: [email protected]