The Gardening Club at Tauranga Girls' College is growing beyond the school, unfurling and running its vines into greater sustainability projects within the community.

The Gardening Club idea was germinated in 2021, initially as a tidy-up project in the school's horticultural area, according to Tauranga Girls' College science teacher Isis Metcalfe, who says the space had become neglected.

'It had become a bit of a dumping ground for various plants and things, and a bit overgrown.”

A group of students decided to bring it back to its former glory.

'They spent a lot of time cleaning all the rubbish out, cleaning out all of the leaves and they cleaned out the shed.”

The club is thankful to have been given native seedlings from an initiative called Trees for Survival.

'They donate a lot of native seedlings to us and we grow them and look after them until they're big enough to plant,” says Isis.

'We've got Manuka, Kanuka, Kawakawa, and a variety of different grasses like Harakeke.”

Once the seedlings are big enough, the club has been transplanting the plants to Gate Pā gully as part of the Gate Pā gully forest restoration project.

'The idea is to plant all these native plants in the hope it might bring back some of those native birds to the gully, which would be so cool,” says Isis.

'There's been a few times when we've donated our seedlings to other planting groups for other planting sessions that have occurred in the community too,” says Isis, where the club has also donated plants for sites Gate Pā | Pukehinahina.

Isis says there is a core of six students involved with the Gardening Club and its projects.

'[The students] are quite passionate about the environment …so that's why they're doing it – they're driven because they care.”

Among the students is Eve Flint, who leads the Gardening Club and is also part of the school's Environmental Committee.

'We have done some awesome projects this year, such as organising our ‘Green Gala', promoting proper mask disposal, and recycling and repurposing bottle caps,” says Eve.

The thing she enjoys most about the Gardening Club is the people she gets to work with.

'I've met so many people through gardening, both students from the school and from Gate Pā School, and people from outside organisations,” says Eve.

'We've got a lot of sustainability projects going on, so the garden is just a tiny project amongst many others,” says Isis.