Monday, 12 October 2020

Three new groups learning tree nursery skills

With Local Service suspended due to COVID-19, we have even more students than usual milling about in our tree nursery. A Middle school group works with Mr Meehan on Wednesday; a Grade 9-10 group with Mr Daniels and Ms Haley on Thursday; and a Grade 11-12 group with Mr Tomlin on Friday. Meanwhile, a URRP GC group also meets at lunchtime on Thursday, literally getting their hands dirty. As if that weren't enough, a Magic Mulch group meets on Thursday afternoon, taking invaluable compost to trees around the campus that started life in the nursery. The new URRP groups are following a basic tree nursery course that introduces them to the theory and practice of how to:
  1. germinate seeds
  2. 'pot up' seedlings
  3. grow new trees (clones) from cuttings
  4. grow new trees by means of air layering ('marcottage')
  5. plant a tree

It's an exciting time — especially with NParks keen to involve us in their One Million Trees movement — and we look forward to a new batch of students coming through the nursery in Season 2 (Nov-Jan). The late Nobel Peace Prize winner Waangari Maathai once said, “Until you dig a hole, you plant a tree, you water it and make it survive, you haven’t done a thing. You are just talking.” Keep digging!

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