Term 4 Mulching Events 2025
Mulch, mulch, mulch… then ice cream! … And repeat!
We usually hold a mulching event in Term 4 for schools to come along to. A few years ago it became two events, one on each side of town. Then last year we added a Tūrangi event. This year we also added a Reporoa event… and many others! The last few weeks have been a blur of mulch and ice cream for our coordinators!
TKKM o Whakarewa, Taupō nui a Tia College international students, Busy Bees, and Taupō Kids Community mulched the Rickit St site with the Wicked Weeders.
Tauhara College mulched Plantation Reserve.
Tauhara Primary mulched Crown Park.
Reporoa Primary and Reporoa Kindergarten mulched the Koru Garden.
Taupō Primary School and Mountview School mulched the Tauhara Road Greening Taupō Day site with the Wicked Weeders.
Taupō Intermediate mulched their gully site and Waipahihi School mulched their school site.
Students are often re-visiting trees that they planted at these events. They like to see their ‘babies’ and help them to survive the summer. They pull out weeds and spread a blanket of mulch in a donut shape around each plant. The mulch blanket suppresses weeds in the spring, locks in moisture for the summer, keeps the plant warm in the winter and provides nutrition for the plant all year round. It is recycling something that would otherwise go to landfill. It is very magical stuff!
After their hard work is done, the students are rewarded with an ice cream. This year our Taupō EEC friends such as Shannon from TDC and Nic from Enviroschools came to some of our events and scooped ice creams for us. Our coordinators shared stories about the pīpīwharauroa (shining cuckoo) that the students could hear calling, the spittle bugs that they found all around them, and any other wildlife that was spotted.
The mulching events were fun days of learning, nature connection, and improving the local environment.
