CULTURE Eco-Action Nursery
PROPAGATION NURSERY Around 2,500 native plants in large planter bags were grown at College over winter, which added to the 3,500 trees grown at the four other school satellite nurseries. Despite an irrigation disaster die off, 10,000 50x50 pots were pricked out and distributed to new satellite nurseries. The potting mix and seed-raising mix kindly donated by Canterbury Landscape Supplies (CLS) continues to grow great plants. The network now has 12 schools, representing about 10,000 Christchurch students. Two potting up sessions have run each week after school on Tuesday and Friday afternoons. These have been well supported, with Rangi Ruru Girls’ School students augmenting numbers to average 25 students per session. We finished the season with 20,000 seedlings pricked out. Thanks to a donation of College cricket nets, the shade house was enlarged and now provides structure to cover an area of 20x7m. This allows us room to house the 20,000 seedlings needed for expansion to a stable output of 20,000 each year from 2022 from satellite nurseries. The shade house was erected using Year 10 Immerse & Inspire labour for two hours one Sunday. The shade cloth was put on one afternoon by the potting up crew. It remains to be seen if a further expansion of growing on area will be required, as there is currently only space outside for 500 plants. SATELLITE NURSERIES There are now 12 satellite nurseries involved: Shirley Boys’ High School, Avonside Girls’ High School, Ra¯ whiti School, St Andrew’s
PLANTING OUT We managed several planting out sessions throughout the year. In January, Year 9 SBHS students, along with teacher Roger Miller, planted a carex secta or giant rush in the intertidal area for inanga habitat at Chimera Cresent as part of their inauguration. QEII Park adventure trail area 2 had mulch dumped, and a neighbour with a bobcat donated his Saturday to spread it. During Covid alert level 2, when group sizes were limited, we split the 175 people who turned up into two groups. They had a fantastic output, with 1100 plants planted through the mulch layer at QEII in an hour. Planting was also interplanted where deaths had occurred from the previous year. The third planting, at Covid level 1, saw another 200 volunteers plant 1100 trees, again in less than an hour. While back in Covid level 2, another planting of mainly carex secta saw two groups of volunteers plant another 1100 plants. The 100 small shovels purchased from and partially sponsored by Bunnings Warehouse proved their worth. The Eco-Action trustees and their close supporters, as well as a few students on occasion, helped transport the five trailers to site two hours before planting started. The plants had been loaded the previous day into trays of 12. Each four level cage trailer carries about 500 plants. One trailer is for tools, tables and reception tent, another toilet trailer was donated by Hirepool. The Christchurch City Council donated 100 spades that are now being cut down ready for next season. This means we will have a total of 240 spades and small shovels to augment those the volunteers bring. Bunnings has also donated 30 rakes and,
College, Christchurch Girls’ High School, Linwood College, Christ’s College, Rangi Ruru Girls’ School, St Margaret’s College, Cathedral Grammar School, Christchurch South Karamata Intermediate School, and Heaton Normal Intermediate School. Together they have potted up and weed matted 10,000 large planter bags and will grow them on before helping plant them out in winter 2021. Each nursery was initially 500, but many want to increase production next year. This means that we only need seven new satellite nursery host schools for 500 plant nurseries. We have a further three schools interested in hosting, and all current nursery host schools seem happy to continue. GROUND PREPARATION Ground needs to be as weed free as possible before a layer of mulch is applied. Mulch came from two sources: free dumping from arborist businesses resulted in about 350 cubic metres; and Living Earth organic waste processing offered 1,000 tonnes free from their site. We had to pay $8 per tonne cartage to site. Andrew Stark from Stark Bros very kindly donated the use of his tip truck for a day and dumped about 220 tonne on site. Isaac Construction then provided a work experience digger and bobcat to show SBHS students operational details and spread the mulch. Isaac Construction also undertook to cart a further 250 tonne, but the ground got too wet after operational delays and Covid level 4 lockdown. The mulch spreading was completed using Rossco Bobcats.
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Christ’s College Canterbury
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