23/03/2026
We are please to annouce the results from the 9th Rotary Sunrise School Garden Project Prizegiving for 2025/2026.
It’s fantastic to have Ascot Community School, Sacred Heart, Waihopai and Windsor North involved this year, and to welcome back Otatara and Tisbury Schools.
A big thank you to Dave and Kath Wilson from Wilson’s Veges - Farm Fresh for once again supplying the plants.
The project kicked off with plant delivery on 21 November, with judging held on 20 February. The quality of the gardens and produce, along with the enthusiasm of the students and support adults, was outstanding. It was a cracker day spent amongst the greens.
Thank you to everyone who made this project such a success.
Category 1 – Heaviest Pumpkin and Courgette
- SACRED HEART SCHOOL – Won Both – Yet Again.
- Pumpkin – A Whopping 4.05kg – grew 8 pumpkins - Last year’s winner was 2.55kg by Sacred Heart. Now 3 yrs in a row. The previous years was 3.4kg and 4.7kg.
- Courgette –A Whopping 4.5kg – Last year’s winner was a 2.1kg also from S/ Heart
Well done Team Sacred Heart!!
SACRED HEART
- Teacher is Lil Hyde
- Environmental leaders are Karis Patterson and Emerson Patterson
- Fruit trees are plum, apple and feijoas.
- New Trees – Pear, Greengage, Lemon, and Cherry
- Overall, a very good garden.
Category 2 – Best Potato Crop
WAIHOPAI SCHOOL
- Teacher is Mrs Nimmo – Environmental warriors are Beatrice, Indi, Cody and Falicity.
- The garden had a double misfortune this year with Vandalism and Storm Damage
- However, after that adversity, they still produced a good crop and in particular Potatoes.
- The Spud Competition produced 16 buckets of spuds
- Vegetables grown are courgette, pumpkin, broccoli, garlic, corn, capsicums, kale, strawberries, tomatoes,
- Really good strawberry patch.
- Courgette – 1.6kg – 2nd equal overall. - Last years was 1.8kg
- Pumpkin – showed a good yield of 6, but too small to be weighed in.
Category 3 – Best Cabbage and Leek Crop
WINDSOR NORTH SCHOOL
- Teacher is Nicola Marwick
- They had the best crop of Cabbage and Leeks
- Environmental warriors class has been up to 30 over the summer. Clearly a very popular subject.
- A very fine number of apple trees
- They also had a few whooping Cucumbers
Also, very good with food to the table with many vegetables made into salads and roast vegetables a big hit
Category 4– Best Tomato Crop
OTATARA SCHOOL
- Teacher is Emma Scott
- Environmental leaders are Finn. Teddy, and Elsie pretty much a new entrance class
- Vegetables grown had a good crop of Broccoli, Leeks and Kale but
- It was the fabulous Tomato Crop and cucumbers that stood out.
- Grown in the hothouse
- A very tidy garden
Category 5– Best Outside Strawberry Crop
TISBURY SCHOOL
- Environmental warriors are Evie and Mumma Lee
- Vegetables grown are a good range, but they had a great carrot crop and strawberries,
- Biggest and best strawberry patch and crop.
- They also have a very effective composting operation
- Overall, a very tidy garden
Category 6, The final Category – “Best Overall Garden”
ASCOT COMMUNITY SCHOOL
- Teacher is Annette Ferguson who is the Food and Technology teacher.
- We were impressed with how everything including the tomatoes were growing outside.
- Environmental warriors are Epeli, Phoenix, Laylee and Jordan.
- Vegetables grown (all outside) are peas, beans, tomatoes, kale, leeks, potatoes, red cabbage, cauliflower, celery cabbage, capsicum, cranberries, beetroot, parsley.
- Very impressive cauliflower crop.
- Teacher a big advocate of food to the table and teaches the kids to use the produce from the garden.
- We loved the plants in the hanging gardens and tyres, drums using all the outside resources. A very creative Garden
