Young Budding Entrepreneurs Finalists in National Gardening Awards

A small primary school in Kaitaia that has created a natural cure for nits using ingredients from their garden is the Northland regional finalist in NZ Gardener’s 2011 Gardener of the Year Awards announced today.

Principal of Oturu School, Fraser Smith is schooling a generation of budding entrepreneurs – and he’s using the garden to do it. That’s why the school is one of three national finalists in the school garden category.

“They love honey. If it’s to do with honey, they’re into it,” says Smith. “They love eating the beeswax straight out of our hive – like chewing gum – and they love to watch the bees. We’re trying to invent a product to use the propolis, so we’ll probably give throat lozenges a go next.”

Over the past eight years, the school has planted 200 or so trees, including feijoas, guavas, mandarins, cherimoyas, macadamias and grapevines. They grow all the usual vege stuff in their nine different vege patches. They’ve also got olive trees, from which they extract oil every year. They grow medicinal plants, like kawakawa, aloe vera, catnip and lavender, all used to make ointments and remedies. So far the kids have created their own mosquito repellent (tested at school camp), as well as potions for scabies, eczema, and nits. The latter proved so effective, it sold out; the school and its kids are giving their next batch to district nurses.

“Then the kids said they wanted a shop to sell stuff so we had to build a registered kitchen – but now we’re licensed to sell things like strawberry jam,” Fraser says. “Money they make goes straight back into expanding the garden.

“It’s all about empowering kids, creating entrepreneurs. I want them to know we can take things from seed and soil to market and make money,” says Fraser. “It’s about learning what we need to know. The kids know they can go out there and use their plants to fix things.”

“This is the first year we’ve had a category for school gardens in our annual Gardener of the Year awards,” says NZ Gardener’s Editor Jo McCarroll. “And the response was unbelievable. But even among the hundreds of schools that were nominated Oturu School stood out. Fraser’s got the kids learning about gardening – but they’re also learning so much that’s going to help them through their whole lives. ”

The story of the Oturu School gardens – along with the stories of the other two school garden finalists and the finalists in the regional and community garden categories – is in the magazine’s November issue, on sale on October 31. The winner of the 2011 Gardener of the Year, in association with Kiwicare Garden Products, will be decided by public vote: full instructions on how to vote are in the November issue or on the magazine’s website (www.nzgardener.co.nz).

The overall winner of the school garden category will win $1000 of Mitre 10 vouchers and $1000 worth of Kiwicare Garden products. The overall winner will be named the 2011 Gardener of the Year and receive $3000 of Mitre 10 vouchers, a year’s supply of Kiwicare Garden Products and a luxury trip for two to the 2012 Ellerslie Flower Show in Christchurch.

Voting for the supreme winners of NZ Gardener’s 2011 Gardener of the Year Awards closes 30 November and the winners will be announced on 19 December.