From little things big things grow

So spring has well and truely sprung. The students have been laying down garden beds and watering the land for a few months now. Our GA and Site manager have been digging in too! Literally paving the way for subsequent projects.Teachers and aides have laid out horseshoe gardens and planted them. Community members have spent holiday time setting about finding extra soil to supplement the poor clay subsoil. Ute loads of donated soil has come from helpful community nursery growers. Our worms have been busy making juice for the roots of newly planted vegies and a mulberry tree has made a quick appearance after migrating from a local backyard. Rabbit straw from blue mountains hutches has been parceled up and found good use in the garden, our links to other growing zones are far reaching. Organic and heirloom seeds have been sourced for the basis of our growing regime, and parents of students have sent in multicutural pods as well. Each day several classes visit and tend. Junior classes have been picnicing and secondary classes have filled raised beds. Wheelchair students have planted their first crops of seedlings. We watch them grow.

The community plants together.

After the ceremony of the morning, parents and students, staff and community were asked to join in, dig in, turn the earth and plant trees. It was a great sight to see so many planting for the future and beginning the growth of the Green. Special thanks to those fathers, mothers and grandparents who came today bringing plants for windbreaks, citrus for the orchard and elbow grease for the hard yakka!

Big Red

Dennis Clarke our longtime A.P., kids champion and big burly good bloke returned to Halinda from long service leave momentarily to plant an Australian Red Ceder tree. A gigantic, legendary, rare tree to mark the beginning of our garden and the presence of a big hearted man. With a personal and working history intricately bound to the school in its old location and in its new one, Dennis plants for the future. He planted with soil from the old school site to mark a continuation of tradition.

A place of peace.

I would like to thank all those who have helped make the vision of Halinda Green begin as a reality. As I said in thanking Uncle Wes today 'this will be a place for gardening, learning, meeting and forging community links, and it is a place of peace'. I believe gardens can do this.

Mathew Dollisson

Cultural Custodians on the Green

Uncle Wes, an Elder of the Darug, came today and performed the Darug smoking ceremony to begin to cleanse, welcome and heal the land and the community of Halinda Green. He burnt the freshly chosen fronds of a precious local plant to make smoke. The whole school walked through it, circling through the meeting place. Students, parents, staff and community members took part and enjoyed the experience. Good will was felt. It highlights links to this area. The land will continue to sustain people as it has done over the vast history of the Darug and will once again host plants known now as Cumberlain plain species. Plants which Uncle Wes told us have cultural histories that carry on. They are part of our story too now and we are part of theirs. We must be mindful of the importance of the nature around us and the cultures that live by it.

Busy Hands Digging

After a frosty morning setting up the meeting circle, classes came out to dig some holes for the days' planting. Students shone as enthusiastic workers on the Green! The garden brings out the best of practical abilities in the kids. The soil is hard to dig, very hard. But it was ripper to see students getting stuck into the task, which didn't seem like a task, but fun.

Hay for the winds

30 bales of hay arrived today. That's 30 bales of protection for the garden + trees. The Green is a very wind prone site and to establish our first wind break the plants will need the help of a wind break of their own. The bales are an extra bit of protection from wind evaporation too. But first they will be used for our official tree day, marking a ceremonial meeting place at the heart of the garden.