Richard Higgins Blog

This has been 3 years in the making, and its happenning ! A few years a go when I became the Environmental Sustainbility Management teacher at Bay of Islands College. I thought to myself , I better learn a thing or two about horticulture and growing stuff. Then as if by luck, or destiny I recieved a book about Permaculture, this book hit me like a bolt of lightning. It was as if, from that point on my life had changed, every thing started to make sense and I could really see that there is HOPE and a way out of the dire environmental catospharie that is looming on the horizion .  Permiculture has 12 principals which can be applied to the ecosystem of your garden, your community or fingers crossed the entire world. These principals range from the obvious like 'Produce No Waste" to the more abstract "design from Patterns in Nature" but three years ago when I was sitting in the Horticulture Block day dreaming about the possibilities and this wonderful opportunity that I ...

More progress in the Horticulture Block with construction started on our new SHADE HOUSE. This is a big step forward! For the last few years we have been out in the garden exposed to all of the elements. and to be honest it has been a bit hard to keep everything organized with no central, sheltered hub for our activity. This shade house will not only give us more space to work, with work benches and storage. But it will also let us start growing hundreds if not thousands of native trees.  I recently read that emissions from a medium sized car, 20,000 km per year will be offset by 18 native trees and shrubs by the time they reach 50! So as you can see there is much work to be done. I am really excited about all of the new and exciting opportunities that this build will offer our students and community. I also want to say a MASSIVE THANK YOU to Chris Serfontein and his year 12 & 13 Wood Work students who are in charge of this build. It is great to see departments working together...

Last week my esteemed colleague and friend Matua Dion and I travelled north from Kawakawa to Coopers Beach to attend a Permaculture Food Forest design course. Permaculture is a holistic way of looking at sustainability and design. It is very complicated and it is very simple. It is a way of gardening and it is a way of life. I became interested in Permaculture a few years ago it has been a very fulfilling and rewarding journey of learning, growing and making new friends, also eating lots of strawberries. In many ways a food forest is the ultimate in permaculture design, if you are wondering what a food forest is? It is a forest that is created to produce food, improve soil and create a more sustainable way of being. The course we went to on Friday gave us an insight about how to get started on the food forest journey. The morning was spent in the classroom learning some of the basics about the permaculture philosophy and the science behind the principles. The afternoon was spent gettin...

There has been many exciting things happening at Bay of Islands College this week, from Prefect Award ceremonies to Athletics Day. But while all the fuss and excitement was going on at the front of the school, out the back, in the Horticulture Block possibly the most exciting thing to ever happen HAPPENED! Our Level 1 Environmental Sustainability Management students took the first step in composting the green waste produced from the healthy lunches!  Why is this so exciting? Well for the last 3 years since I have been a teacher at Bay of Islands College I have been involved in different aspects of our waste management at school, from Paper Recycling and Rubbish Audits, Waste Free Galas and Action Plans. But no matter how hard we tried we it was hard to stop the rising tide of plastic waste that kept coming from the tuck shop. But in 2021 we have a new awesome initiative  to provide our students with fresh healthy kai every day. Now this is the exciting part! Every week our stu...

On Saturday I received a call from Whaea Annette asking me if her friend could drop a load of wood chips at the Horticulture Block, as you can see by the photo, the answer was a resounding YES! Wood chips come in handy in an organic garden as the have multiple uses. We have big plans for this load, the majority will be used for mulch and sheet mulching. Mulch is a protective layer of organic matter (wood chips) that you can put around the base of trees and shrubs. Mulch insulates and warms the soil, locks moisture in and adds nutrients, all the while suppressing weeds, AMAZING!! 🌲🌴 Sheet Mulching is the process of layering many layers of organic material (lawn clippings, cardboard, compost, manure, leaves....basically anything that has been alive!) You layer all this material on the ground where you want a garden, and then let nature do its thing. Over time everything will decompose and leave the soil rich and full of nutrients and micro-organisms.  We have never tried this in th...

Comfrey is the bees knees when it comes to organic fertilizer or as Noah put it "Its like steroids for plants". I read about this wonderous plant last year and brought some to grow in our garden to see if we could reap some of the organic goodness on offer! Comfrey is a 'Dynamic Accumulator' which means it sends its roots deep down into the ground and brings up all the nutrients from down below and stores them in its leaves.  Comfrey also has many medicinal properties and can be used to treat ailments such as sprains, burns, bruises and joint inflammation. I even read somewhere that it was used in medieval times to help with broken bones. Today our Level 2 Students Noah and Thomas took the first steps in making comfrey tea which we will use to boost our plant growth. Comfrey is  especially rich in potassium. Here is the recipe we used for Comfrey Tea. About 80 Comfrey Leaves ( broken up & put in a bucket ) Fill the bucket with water Wait 2 or so weeks ( you will k...

  Year 11 Environmental Sustainability Management students are currently working on the standard 'Design a Landscape Plan that reflects user requirements' We have chosen to redesign the Horticulture block. This kaupapa requires students to think carefully about this environment and landscape. Students will focus on the natural patterns that already exist, for example water flow, shade, light and seasonal change. We will find ways in which we can work in harmony with nature and maximise the production of healthy kai, reduce our waste, create places for learning and reflection as well as places of beauty and peace.  Today we discussed Annuals, Perennials and  Deciduous Trees.

We have some exceptional students at Bay of Islands College and I am continually impressed by the positive attitude,  good nature and hard work that they put in to life at school. Last week I put the word out that I was looking for a bit of help with some mahi in the garden, specifically clearing out the area where the new shade house will be going. Due to the hectic schedule of a school week , Saturday was the only day which I had time to do this job. I asked around if any students were available to help out. Being the weekend I was not very optimistic, until I asked Verner who said he was keen! True to his word, Verna arrived at 9.30am on the dot and ready to work! We smashed out about 2.5 hours of hard graft to get the job done and the site ready for the wood work students to start on the shade house. This is a very big step forward for Environmental Sustainability Management at Bay College. Verner is a bright student with a very big future ahead of him !  Thanks for your h...

This week ESM champion and resident American Jasper tried mowing the lawns for the very first time. Growing up in the desert of Nevada and living on a boat in Russel he has never had the opportunity to participate in this most kiwi of traditions, mowing the lawns. He was working towards 5 NCEA credits in Garden Maintenance.  In this lesson Jasper also got introduced to the other great kiwi tradition commonly known as 'The Stitch Up' being a novice to lawn maintenance, his mates Andrew and Christian ( who tell me they have been mowing the lawn for years!!!) had Jasper start in the long grass, on a low setting, with the catcher on......classic! Ka pai e hoa! Keep up the Good work!

Level 2 ESM stepped outside today to have a look at or new project. This is for the Standard 'Produce a Landscape Plan' .We have a very exciting opportunity to design a landscape plan that will enhance the environment here at school. The Bank on the eastern side of the top field is currently not being utilized  and  covered in weeds. From a distance it looks like big trees, and some of them are quite impressive in size. But to my knowledge none of them were planted there rather they are seeds that have blown onto the bank, settled, germinated and grown into big trees. From my count there was 3 native trees. We are going to be re thinking and redesigning this area taking into consideration the social, cultural environmental and economic factors that will make this dream become a reality.  The first step is to 'Observe and Interact' , so we went out there and had a look at what was going on, this helped us to recognize the scale of the project and our imaginations ran wil...

The new shade house is seeing a lot of activity these days with our level one students learning the basics of plant propagation techniques. Over the last 2 weeks we have been growing seeds in seed trays, choosing the vegetables suitable for this time of the year. This was the first opportunity we have had to prick out seedlings and pot them into bigger containers, for a few students this was the first time that ever tried this technique!. Itwas great to see students getting their hands dirty and taking the first step of growing their own fresh healthy Kai. There is still a lot of work to be done to get this garden growing, so far we are really happy with the awesome start progress this class is making to be coming more environmentally sustainable! Kapai!

A big thank you to Mr Wilkie and the art department for designing a new sign for our garden! it is really important for our departments at school to be working together to build a sustainable future! Kia pai

Today in environmental sustainability management level 1 course students began growing seeds and pots and containers this is the first step in growing our garden. over the course of the next few weeks students will nurture and grow the seeds to the point where they are ready to go into the ground. The seeds we have grown are Vegetables, mainly brassicas which will be ready by the end of term one. It is also the hope that some of this mail that we can grow can be given away to the school whanau and community. Growing a garden is slow and rewarding process. We have taken the first step and I am very excited about what the future holds for our garden, our students and the planet! Kia kaha!

Check out the Environmental Sustainability Management Department’s new shade house! This shade house is a prototype for something much bigger which we will be building by the end of term one. Students in the Environmental Sustainability Management course will be learning how to grow native trees, vegetables and flowers, how to maintain a vegetable garden and important aspects of landscape design. It is very hot in the garden at the moment so the shade house is going to provide really good shelter for our young plants during the hot, dry summer months , Kia ora

Kia ora , Today Matua Jason and I took the first steps towards building a shade house in the Horticulture Block. This Shade house is going to be a prototype for a larger structure that will be built in term one by the woodwork and technology students. Having shade for young plants is essential , especially at this time of the year when the sun is hot and water scarce.  I am going to get some supplies finish off this project in the weekend and have it ready for students arrival next week. Ka pai!  

 Manaiakalini PLD @ Waitangi Treaty Grounds 28/01/2021