In September Finlayson Park bought garden boxes for every classroom with grants from Counties Manukau District Health Board and Manukau City Council.Student health council members Maggie Nanai and Ashley Ly say they’ve enjoyed gardening.

"It’s cool because we got to learn how to plant them and see how they grow," Maggie says."We’re really proud of our gardens because we planted them ourselves and they have grown," says Ashley.They’ve been fully involved in starting their gardens – from laying down scoria, soil and mulch to deciding what plants to grow.

The girls planted lettuce, carrots, spring onions, silverbeet, bok choi, tomatoes and strawberries. They picked them before the Christmas holidays.The gardens are part of the school’s Health Promoting Schools framework to develop healthy initiatives and enhance links between schools and communities.

Coordinator Kelly Turu is pleased at how well the gardens took off at the school."The kids have been really excited about taking care of their gardens and watching the plants grow," she says.Ms Turu says students learned how and when to plant, how to maintain a garden, plus nutrition and healthy eating.

We’re hoping the students will encourage their parents to get their own gardens at home and teach them that it is not as hard as they may think it is."Feedback from parents has been positive and the school plans to buy more garden boxes."It’s been a lot of hard work and commitment to getting the gardens started but they’re running well."