Year 2 Neighbourhood

Indigenous Garden Update

Research for our Indigenous Garden is transforming into designing, inventing, mapping, measuring, proposing, planning, preparing, testing, tinkering, visualising and further research. Work and progress is taking a much more physical form and this has generated a fresh buzz of excitement and anticipation.

Within the documentation below, we have also noted that different groups’ work and research have enabled them to support other groups. This highlights the coming together and collaboration inherent in a collective inquiry project.

We will let the photos and the children do the talking from here.


“My groups have researched and are making plant signs for the garden. We are also now helping other groups make signs that they need.” (Zara)


“We’re inventing a self-watering system with plastic bottles. We are making a few inventions so we know which one works best.” (Aaliyah)

“We’re figuring out how to measure rain so we know how much water the plants need. We are making an invention using recycled plastic bottles.” (Sienna)


“We are trying to find out how we could catch the rain that doesn’t hit our self-watering system.” (Finn)


“My group is weeding to make more room for the native plants. We have found snails but we are not sure if they should be there.” (Seb)


“Sakura and I have been helping the self-watering groups to test to see if the soil is moist because Saltbush needs moist soil when it is a young plant.” (Lucienne)

“We are researching how big Lemon Mrytle will grow because some of the species grow to different sizes.” (Leo O)

“Flynn and I are measuring where we can plant Saltbush. We propose that it should be planted behind the passive play area.” (Rohan)


“Finn and I have been trying out a lot of self-watering systems the most successful has been the first one we made with a tube to help the rain go down into the garden.” (Elliot)


“My group and I are designing in Minecraft Education how the garden could look like once everything is planted.” (Simane)


“My group is going on Minecraft Education to plan and map out where the plants can be planted.” (Noah)
“My group has been working on Minecraft Education designing lots of gardens with Pigface. It’s a beautiful plant.” (Van)


“James and I have made pots and filled them with dirt to test whether the pot holds wet soil and how much.” (Henry L)


“Esther and I are trying to decide which invention for self-watering systems and rain surveys works best.” (Billie)

“I have been making a watering system with plants inside it to help the plants get water quickly.” (Vivi)

“I have been researching Pigface and I’ve made a poster to share my research.” (Alice)

“Our group has been researching how much water River Mint needs, how big it grows and how many months it takes to grow. We should plant it behind the passive play because it spreads.” (Lulu)

“I’ve been researching about compost. I suggest we should have paper compost and food scrap compost. I also think we should have more of a push to have nude food.” (Elspeth)

year2team