Holy Cross School receive winning prize of a garden makeover from Council staff

Holy Cross School in Miramar were the lucky recipients of a garden makeover-style prize from the Wellington Botanic Gardens, on Tuesday 5 July, for their amazing entries into a recent art competition. The Councils Wellington Botanic Gardens is building a Children’s Garden and they asked local schools to create artwork based around the theme of the things they can use plants for.

The winning entry was a beautiful drawing of a guitar made out fruits and vegetables by Hiwi Zaia from Holy Cross School in Miramar. Hiwi won a planter box, garden mix, and some plants for herself, and won a prize for her school too which consisted of a day with staff from Wellington Botanic Garden helping them in their school’s garden and over $500 worth of garden makeover materials.

Mayor Celia Wade Brown says, “Connecting children and nature in the city is essential. Congratulations to Hiwi and the whole school!”

David Sole, the Botanic Gardens Manager, said choosing the winner was difficult for the judges, with over 60 entries from across Wellington that celebrated the new Children’s Garden in creative and colourful ways.

“It was fantastic to see how creative the kids were in exploring the uses of plants through their artwork. We are really looking forward to involving more kids and schools in our gardens with the exciting development of our Children’s Garden in the upcoming year.”

The school desperately needed irrigation for their sandy, dry soil – so that was installed by Karl Noldan, Curator of the Main Gardens who also planted fruit trees with the children. The school also had a separate ‘Peace’ themed garden that also struggled with dry soils so staff from Wellington City Council taught the young gardeners about planting hardy natives, including a dwarf kowhai to attract the native birds.

The Council are currently building a Children’s Garden in the Wellington Botanic Gardens. Its purpose is to provide a living classroom for children to learn about plants that provide food, medicine, fibre and construction materials. Phase 1 of the new garden will be complete by late spring 2016.

All the entries of the competition are on display in the Treehouse Visitors Centre at Wellington Botanic Garden, until September.

ENDS

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