The fruit trees of the future

A school planted a seed and ended up with overflowing greenery after a Facebook post gained attention.

Patea Area School came up with a scheme called Family Fruit Trees 4 the Future and asked exschool students to donate a fruit tree that the could benefit the community one day.

Principal Nicola Ngarewa said within 24 hours the school received more than 100 fruit trees.

‘‘It’s been an amazing response from a little community,’’ she said.

The idea originally sprouted from the thought of having fruit trees on the school grounds. ’’We thought ‘what a wonderful opportunity to reach out to our past and present students to donate a fruit tree’,’’ Ngarewa said.

From there the trees flew in, and plans developed.

‘‘We’ve built into the course for some of our students to make sure that they’ve got an ongoing horticultural programme to keep the trees looked after.’’

The idea is that the trees will be named with an eco-friendly tag for the donating family and when it is planted they will be sent a photo and its location.

‘‘Then it’s their name marked forever,’’ Ngarewa said.

She said she understood the trees would be like anything on a property and would require ongoing care.

‘‘Because we’ve asked for names of the trees it’s really important that we then give it the due respect to make sure they’re looked after and protected,’’ she said. ‘‘And for the kids know the stories about them too.’’

Ngarewa said she had people who had travelled when the Facebook was first put up just to bring a tree to the school.

‘‘We had one family that travelled down from New Plymouth specifically to drop off their family tree,’’ she said. ‘‘They’d be in their 50s so that’s been a long time since they were at school here.’’

She said there had been many amazing responses to the idea.

Ngarewa also had received small trees that would have to be well looked after to get them ready, but she didn’t mind.

‘‘They come with their own story from their own garden,’’ she said.

Ngarewa said once the trees were ready anyone could help themselves.

‘‘To be honest, with over 100 fruit trees there should be plenty.’’

JANE MATTHEWS/FAIRFAX NZ Tileah Abraham, 10, held one of the many fruit trees that hold a story. The tree was donated by her family in memory of her grandmother who recently passed away.