Garden of Weedin & Garden Club News

A big welcome back for Term 2.  Garden club will commence Week 2 and finish in Week 9, so please get your forms back to school asap.  Numbers are limited this term. Note there is no Garden Club in Weeks 3 and 7 due to staff meetings.  Now that the weather is a little unpredictable if rain is forecast a notice will be pushed out via the schools apps by 3pm the preceding day.

Mark from Tucker Bush came to the school to help us with the selection and planting our new Native Bush Tucker garden as part of our $1 000 grant from Woolworths and Landcare. Rooms 19, 21 and the Moodijt Club all attended and will be responsible for this project. Our wonderful Bev Shaw who runs the Moodijt Club is researching uses of the plants with the club and will make signs for the garden.

It is planned to have the Noongar Seasonal Calendar made into a large board. Please note there are many different versions of this calendar and many different spellings for the word Noongar. Noongar means ‘a person of the south-west of Western Australia,’ or the name for the ‘original inhabitants of the south-west of Western Australia’ and are one of the largest Aboriginal cultural blocks in Australia.

In the south west of Australia, the Noongar seasonal calendar includes six different seasons in a yearly cycle. 

These are Birak, Bunuru, Djeran, Makuru, Djilba and Kambarang. Each of the six seasons represents and explains the seasonal changes we see annually. The flowering of many different plants is a helpful indicator that the seasons are changing. 

The Noongar seasons can be long or short and are indicated by what is happening and changing around us rather than by dates on a calendar. 

This six-season calendar is extremely important to Noongar people, as it is a guide to what nature is doing at every stage of the year, as well as understanding respect for the land in relation to plant and animal fertility cycles and land and animal preservation.

The children and staff are looking forward to working and learning from this project and we’ll keep you updated.

Click on the Woolworths Junior Landcare Grant map to read about our project and others.

Recycling Programs - located near the Front Office

Please continue to bring in:

• Beauty products and hair care packaging
• Batteries
• Mobile phones and accessories
• Dental hygiene packaging including toothbrushes
• Coffee pods
• Ring Pulls from cans of drink

I am pleased to announce that we now have a Grow Free Cart that is set up near the office. The cart has been painted by the staff from Room 21 and Room 21 students will become the custodians of the cart.

 "How does the cart work?" We have a simple answer: you give what you can, and take what you need. There are no prices, no bartering, no trading, no value. Like you would with family and loved ones.

What can I put on the cart?

Homegrown or homemade produce: fruit, veg, herbs, preserves, eggs, etc.         Preferably grown with organic principles, without toxins. Grown with love is a strict prerequisite! Seeds, seedlings, cuttings and rootstock (Please label all, and heirloom seeds are best, as they can be saved from) All things gardening, whether it be gardening magazines, planters,  worm tea, jars , paper bags and small boxes for seeds or produce.

Happy gardening and recycling,

Sandra & Stacey – Sustainability Coordinators