Planting NZ Passion vines with Kereru Discovery

On Tuesday 9th of June, fourteen members of the Khandallah School Garden Gang participated in a working lunch as part of an ongoing initiative between The Kereru Discovery and the school.

With Mount Kau Kau’s Khandallah Park at the ‘back door’ of the school, the initiative aims to involve children in the conservation of our native wood pigeon, the Kereru, whose habitat we share.

The children planted over 50 Kohia (New Zealand Passionfruit Vine) with guidance from Tony Stoddard and Amber Bill from Kereru Discovery (WWF) and Wellington City Council respectively.

Some of the vines had been grown and cared for by the Garden Gang.

 The children learnt that the Kohia plant is a native vine and a vigorous climber that wraps itself around other trees’ trunks and branches as it makes its way up to the treetop canopy. It has small white flowers in spring then orange fruit in autumn that native birds, including the Kereru, like to feed on. The sap of the tree was used to make a kind of chewing gum by the Maori and as well as eating the fruit, Maori extracted the fragrant oil to use as body oil.

Check out our Kereru drawings on the 'Kereru Drawings' Page tab.

Khandallah School helping with The Kereru DiscoveryProject

Last November 2014 the school got involved with the Kereru Discovery Project.

A stall was set up at the school fair where people could pot up a native plant seed  for a gold coin donation. The pots were labelled with the names of those who had 'sponsored' each plant.

This news was published in The Wellingtonian on November 6th 2014

The good people at the  Kereru Discovery Project make it their job to look after our beautiful native Kereru for future generations to enjoy.

Want to find out more about what they do? Want to get involved?

Be sure to check out their website and blog.


You'll see there's plenty we can do and it doesn't necessarily take a huge effort, like  counting and recording the Kereru in your back yard, or planting native trees that Kereru like to feed...or simply spreading awareness of what's going on.

At Garden Gang we're learning more about what can be done and have been looking after the Kereru Project seedlings in our school grounds for future planting in Khandallah Park.

We'll have flowers in Spring

We planted a mixed bag of flower bulbs on Tuesday 26th May.

These came in all different shapes and sizes.

                        We're hoping for more                                          colour in our boxes and borders.

Come spring, we'll get a lovely surprise!


We also planted some dwarf daffodils!

Gardening Thoughts and Ideas

Thought-sharing session

On Tuesday 4th May the Garden Gang members gathered indoors and had a brainstorming session about the Garden Gang's purpose, member's roles and why we're members and even discussed what plants we'd like to grow. 

There were many thoughts and ideas shared by the children and these are listed below:

Why do we have a Garden Gang?

• To help plants grow
• To grow vegetables and herbs for the soup kitchen and the community
• So we can enter garden competitions between schools

What do you think your job is as a Garden Gang member?

• Water the plants in the 3 herb beds
• Water the Kereru Project adopted plants
• Help set up a water roster
• Weeding
• Trim the hedges
• Cut off the dying plants
• Manage the worm farm
• Plant new vegetables and herbs
• Sow seeds

What do we want to do or grow in the Garden Gang?

• Do Garden Gang every day!
• Grow Sweet peas, Kale, Feijoas, Apples, Potatoes, Watermelons, Strawberries, Raspberries, Blackberries
• Create a Blueberry Farm
• Grow flowers like Marigolds, Roses, Daisies

What do I want to learn?

• I want to learn about gardening so that I can teach my mum and dad 
• I want to learn to grow plants by myself
• I want to make my own garden
• I want to grow my own food

The kids showed great enthusiasm when sharing their reasons for being part of the Garden Gang and there was a general understanding that there was great satisfaction in "growing our own plants"!