MATAPU SCHOOL – Room 1 Talkback

 Today our entire school went to visit Hollard’s Gardens in Kaponga. We had a great time and learnt more stuff about plants.

This is the Chatam Island Christmas Tree, only found in the Chatham Islands and Pitt Island.  There are not many of these trees left because most have been cut down to clear land for farms. 

This tree is native to Chilli.  They make good firewood and the Hollard Gardens have six of these growing here.  There are two ways to preserve trees.  Exsitu is when trees are moved to another better area to grow and insitu is when trees remain where they are and are protected by fences etc. 

These trees are rhododendrons and were part of a hedge of plants.  The trees in between these two have been removed to give these two some space to grow in.  The trees in between were also mulched and the mulch was sprinkled on the ground to help feed the plants…like weet bix.  We also talked about photosynthesis which is when the leaves turn the sunlight into food/sugars that are transported around the plant and stored.

 
These trees are used for wind breakers to protect the other plants from the wind.  It is important to collect the seeds from these trees to plant new ones rather than taking cuttings because the cuttings will produce identical copies of the trees.  This helps protect the plants from disease and extinction so that each one is different .

Around the district of Kaponga all the land around Hollard’s Garden was cleared for farming except for this area because it was too swampy to farm. 

 
It is important to plant plants in the right areas so that they can grow.  In this area it was really swampy so they have to plant plants that can grow in swampy places.

A big thanks to Mr Rine who took time out of his day to walk us through the great garden!

Room 1

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