School’s lunchtime gardening club is growing strong
Newlands Primary School’s popular lunchtime gardening club is set to bloom with a Yarra Valley Water community grant helping to improve water efficiency and expand its garden beds.
The school, with a growing population of 340 students from diverse cultural backgrounds, used to rely on hand-watering using drinking water to maintain its produce garden.
Now the $1,500 Yarra Valley Water grant from will fund a sustainability upgrade, including a water tank, mulch, composting tools and fruit trees.
“Previously, our biggest roadblock has been the lack of effective water saving and usage, but now we’re able to purchase a water tank and fit special piping measures to ensure sustainable and appropriate watering practices,” Teacher and Garden Club Organiser Ms Courtney Perryman said.
“The funding will also greatly help us source some new additions to the garden such as a Mandarin Satsuma Okitsu, a Dwarf Apple 'Cripps Pink' Tree and a Brown Turkey Fig tree,” she said.
“We would love to expand our produce as well as our composting systems to further improve our environmental impact and community knowledge.”
The produce garden is run by students in the school’s increasingly popular lunchtime gardening club, providing them with hands-on learning about sustainability, growing food, healthy eating and cooking, responsibility, patience and teamwork. The garden is also incorporated into science, maths and art lessons.
“Our schools’ values are curiosity, care, creativity and responsibility, and the gardening club has been instrumental in fostering a sense of community as well as hands-on education about the environment and our role alongside it,” Ms Perryman said.
School parents and families are also often invited to participate in garden activities, fostering a sense of community and shared responsibility.
The activities aim to encourage healthier eating habits and for familities to start growing their own food at home as the school garden grows.
Yarra Valley Water’s General Manager Strategy and Community, Tiffany White, said Newlands Primary School’s enthusiasm for sustainable education and pursuit of hands-on environmental knowledge was heart-warming.
“It’s wonderful to see the dedication of the teachers and students involved in the gardening club and the far-reaching community impacts they are having,” Ms White said.
“Yarra Valley Water is excited to watch Newlands Primary’s gardening project thrive through the many hands and talents of its community.”
Newlands Primary School is among 14 recipients of Yarra Valley Water’s Community Grants program, which funds projects aimed at water conservation, habitat improvement, and community education.
For more information about Yarra Valley Water’s Community Grant program, please visit www.yvw.com.au/community-grants