Lockdown no barrier for young gardeners
A North Shore and a West Auckland kindergarten have come out tops in a sunflower-growing project.
During the past four months, 11,694 kindy children nationwide learned about gardening through competing to grow the tallest sunflower and widest sunflower head in their region as part of the Daltons Sunflowers in Kindergartens Project.
In Auckland, 3440 children from the Auckland Kindergarten Association were involved in the project, launched the day before the nationwide Covid lockdown in August, leaving Auckland under Covid restrictions for the entire competition.
Teachers have gone above and beyond to keep sunflowers alive. Oratia Kindergarten took the title for tallest sunflower in Auckland and the entire country, with 2.74-metre plant. Teacher Pip
Stevens says, ‘‘growing our beautiful Daltons sunflowers from seed has once again been such an awesome introduction for our wonderful tamariki to taking on the role of kaitiaki.’’
The widest sunflower head was won by Kauri Park Kindergarten with a diameter of 20 centimetres. Headteacher Astrid Aagesen says, ‘‘the Daltons sunflower competition experience is valuable to us in so many ways. It aligns with our philosophy around nature connectedness and supported connections between kindergarten, tamariki and whānau throughout the rāhui (lockdowns).’’
The goal of the biennial project is to for children to learn about gardening in a practical way. They develop skills and a basic understanding of plants through sowing seeds and growing seedlings.