Bethlehem Primary School students are learning about nature and sustainability both in and out of the classroom.

The school opened its newest garden yesterday to the public with the aim of teaching children about how to grow a garden without using chemicals.

Dylan, 10, and Anabel, 11, with produce from their garden.

Parent and Enviro garden project organiser Jo Looij says they wanted it to be a sustainable unit by using their own compost by recycling their waste.

'We have a self-watering bed, a self-fertilising bed. We just want to teach the children about how the soil is alive, how we have to feed it and we can't use chemicals.”

Around 25 children are involved in the project and Jo says they have loved it.

'They have filled every bed using shovels and their hands. We also have four chickens which have been raised by one of the classes and they have just gone into the coupe about three weeks ago.

'We have a butterfly house. We take butterflies, tag them and monitor them and the furthest one that was monitored from our butterfly house was in Nelson.”

The school also has an insect garden as well with a bug hotel.

'We planted lots of wild flowers and insect attracting flowers,” adds Jo.

'We want the children to know about the whole system, about how an organic garden can run.”

During yesterday's open day, each child talked about their area of the garden as parents and other school staff went through the garden.

The garden's sponsors were taken around in the afternoon.

'We are open for the Garden and Art Festival on Tuesday as part of the Enviro Schools. Our next plan is to harvest some stuff, make kale chips and things like that,” says Jo.

'We're trying to see where else we can improve and save money.”


Gracie, 9, Mckenna, 10, Sam, 10, and Josh with the worms from their worm garden.

Ashton, 11, looking after the compost heap.

Lily, 9, and Thomas, 9, with some chooks from the Chook Nook.

Nina, 10, is in charge of the flowers.