Kilmore Primary School, KPS, students came together on Friday to plant fruit and native trees as part of Schools Tree Day for 2023.
Now in its seventh year, KPS’ annual event is sponsored by Kilmore Toyota and encourages students to go outdoors and get involved with plants while caring for the environment.
KPS wellbeing worker Mez Miller said the activity was all about teaching students about the outdoors and eating organic.
“It’s about the kids learning how plants grow, where fruit comes from, healthy eating, and it also gets them outside,” she said.
“We’re putting in six fruit trees to complement the students’ kitchen garden, which helps them learn about plants and everything that comes with them.”
Plantings included a series of indigenous plants that historically have many uses, from some that could be used as dye to others with edible roots – many of which are considered ‘bush tucker’ and serve to teach students about the native plants of the area.
Last year’s activities had children plant trees at Kilmore Racecourse Walking Track, however this year’s event stayed on school grounds as students planted trees along the school’s Foote Street fence line.
“The kids at this school absolutely love all of the gardening stuff, they’ve gotten right into all the fruits and veggies. Some kids who don’t normally eat fruit and veggies are now really interested,” Ms Miller said.
“It also gives them an opportunity to get out, if they need a little bit of time or space it’s a good a place for them to come to if they need a bit of a break.”
