Tour Kelmarna Gardens Online
Here is a map of the main gardens at Kelmarna.

We wanted to make sure that, even from school or home, you can still have a sort of wander around the place by using this map and looking through pictures of the garden's main areas.

If you've never been to Kelmarna before, then welcome! We hope this helps familiarise you with the place and gets you excited for a visit!

And even if you have been to the gardens before, it might look a bit odd to see a map version of Kelmarma like this - from a bird's eye view, or looking down from above. Of course, we're used to walking through the garden at ground level, so this top-down drawing might take some getting used to!

Did you notice that arrow at the bottom of the map? What do you think that means? That icon is called a compass rose. Map makers, called cartographers, use this feature to tell us the cardinal directions, or which way is north, south, east and west. Remember that the tip of the main arrow always points north.

What about the different shapes and colours? What do they mean? Different maps can have different visual languages that use lines, shapes and colours to communicate information. ​In order to understand the map, there is usually a box of information called a key or a legend that tells you the rules for that particular map.

See if you can make sense of our space by using the legend to help you figure out what the different colours and shapes mean for this map of Kelmarna. Once you've had a good look at the map, scroll down to take a look around at different notable areas and learn a bit about what goes on in the garden!
Objectives
  • Students will identify primary landmarks of Kelmarna Gardens and describe their significance to garden operations
 
  • Students will use mathematics, science and language skills to read and interpret a map

  • Students will identify garden landmarks in both English and Te Reo Māori
Overview
Key Words
Reading a Map
  • bird's eye view
  • compass rose
  • cardinal directions
  • key or legend
  • ​cartography
Organic Gardening
  • productive
  • (bio)diversity
  • (non-)beneficial
  • annual
  • perennial
In the Garden
  • southern
  • northern
  • village green
  • office
  • compost
  • shadehouse
  • potting shed
  • toilet
  • tool shed
  • ​the paddocks
  • kitchen
  • Jafa's paddock
  • beehives
  • chicken coop
  • worm farm
  • food forest
  • shop
I te Māra
  • tonga
  • raki
  • marae ātea
  • whare pakihi
  • pū wairākau
  • whare māra
  • wharau mahi
  • wharepaku
  • wharau taputapu
  • ngā pātiki
  • kīhini, whare kai
  • te pātiki a Jafa
  • pouaka pī
  • whare heihei
  • pāmu noke
  • te wao kai​
  • whare hokohoko
Activity Ideas
Notice that this map of the gardens has two white circles lettered 'A' and 'B' as well as a bunch of red circles that are numbered from 1 to 15.

Each one of these lettered and numbered circles marks an interesting place in the garden for you to 'visit' and discover below!

Scroll down to start your tour or click on the icons in the Overview above to jump around the garden!
I Spy: Can you spot the Adventure Hats?

At Kelmarna, we like to always have our adventure hats handy to protect us from the sun and keep us shady, cool, and dry out in the garden. Do you have an adventure hat?

Challenge: As you look take your virtual tour of the garden below, see if you can spot this brown adventure hat in the pictures. The answers will be at the end of each section. Good luck, and happy adventures!
A. 'Tonga' Garden Area | Te Māra Tonga
Welcome to Kelmarna Gardens! This area is named 'Tonga' because it is the southern half of the garden, and in te reo 'tonga' means 'southern'. If you visit us through the main entrance, this is the first section of garden beds that you will come across.

​Tonga is a productive area of the garden, which means that the main focus of the garden beds here are to produce food for us to eat!

There is a lot of work involved in keeping the soil healthy, provide plenty of water, keep weeds and other unwanted plants and pests out and to harvest the produce when it is ready.

Depending on when you visit, you might find a very different view. This is because different plants grow best at different times of year, and we often move crops around to keep the soil in top health! The layout for what plants we grow in different plots at different times of year is all planned ahead and managed by our Garden Managers and carefully looked after by our staff and generous volunteers.

Take a look through the pictures below and notice the diversity, or variety, of plants that we grow together in the same garden and see which ones you recognise!

How many colours can you spot in the garden?

How many plants can you name in the pictures below?
How many adventure hats did you find in the Tonga Garden Area?

Highlight this section to see the answer: 0 Adventure Hats...oops! None here! Keep looking...
B. 'Raki' Garden Area | Te Māra Raki
Welcome to Kelmarna Gardens! This area is named 'Raki' because it is the northern half of the garden, and in te reo 'raki' means 'northern'.

​Like ​Tonga, Raki is also a productive area of the garden, which means that the garden beds in this area are also focused on producing healthy and nutritious food for us to eat!

One thing you'll notice about Raki is the variety of not only vegetables and herbs, but also flowers. There are many different kinds of flowers of many beautiful colours and shapes growing all around Raki. There are even dedicated flower beds that are just for growing flowers.

Why do you think this is? If we are so focused on growing yummy food, then why do we spend so much energy and space growing flowers as well?

The answer lies in two of the main principles of organic gardening: biodiversity and natural pest control. We are supporting biodiversity by encouraging many different kinds of plants to live in harmony together in the garden. We are also doing ourselves a favour to help control unwanted pests by planting flowers that attract beneficial visitors - in other words, enlisting the help of plants, animals and insects that will keep away or gobble up those non-beneficial ones that harm our efforts in the garden. Check out our Pals, Pests & Pollinators page to learn more!

For now, take a look through the pictures below to wander around the variety of vegetables, herbs and flowers that we grow in this region of the garden.

How many colours can you spot in the garden?

How many plants can you name in the pictures below?
How many adventure hats did you find in the Tonga Garden Area?

Highlight this section to see the answer: 0 Adventure Hats...oops! None here! Keep looking...
 1. Jafa's Paddock | Te Pātiki a Jafa
Say hello to Jafa! Our buddy here is a Welsh Timor pony who lives at Kelmarna Gardens. He is a sturdy fellow, originally bred for strength to carry heavy loads in the mines of Timor.

Jafa's birthday is in November, and this year (2020) he will be turning 15 years old!

One of our valued staff members, Jafa helps us with a couple of important roles in the garden.

For one, he is a vigilant lawn mower - constantly working to keep his paddock nice and tidy by munching on the grass. And my oh my, does he have an appetite! In fact, we ask that if you ever visit with Jafa that you not feed him any treats because he already has a full plate dealing to his paddock. Thanks!

Not only does he clear the grass by eating it, but he also turned those scraps, which would otherwise be discarded grass clippings, into something really valuable...manure! This is a fancy word for his poo, which is rich in nitrogen and is an awesome ingredient for compost.

So Jafa keeps his place tidy and helps re-purpose the waste into nutritious fertiliser. Thanks Jafa!

Just Another Famous Aucklander after all, Jafa gets many visitors each day. He's a friendly guy, when you can get his attention, who is often keen to say hi and stick around for a chat.

He has also garnered national attention with features in newspaper and on primetime TV, including a cameo on the Bachelor NZ (Season 1) on TV3.

In spite of his busy schedule, he takes his fame in stride, not letting it get in the way of his down to earth nature in this city farm he calls home. Good on ya, Jafa!
​How many adventure hats did you find in the Tonga Garden Area?

Highlight this section to see the answer: 2 Adventure Hats! Nice!
2. Compost | Pū Wairākau
Welcome to the compost area of the garden! This is where we collect, sort and process all of the organic waste that we generate in the garden and from the community.

At Kelmarna, we strive to minimise waste and reuse or recycle the resources we have in the garden. Compost is an amazing tool in 'closing the loop' on the cycle of organic waste because it gives value to things that we would otherwise discard or think of as worthless rubbish.

Things like grass clippings, pulled weeds, food scraps from the kitchen and any other unwanted organic bits can be given a new purpose and become luscious compost to feed the soil and our plants.

Composting is magical because it is turns rubbish into something more valuable than gold! Our compost is so precious because it is an essential source of food for the soil. Compost provides nutrition and life to the soil so our plants can grow healthy, big and beautiful!

While the ingredients may be quite yucky when you chuck them in the compost bin, the final product is actually quite different. Finished compost shouldn't be stinky at all, but rather have a slightly sweet smell and crumble in your hands like a fine chocolate cake!

The main ingredients of most compost include:
1) 'greens', which is waste rich in nitrogen,
2) 'browns', which is waste rich in carbon,
3) water, to keep the mixture hydrated, and
4) air, to let certain micro-organisms live, breath and transform the waste into compost!

Of course, there are different kinds of composting methods and a variety of tools and setups that you can use. One of the main differences between these will be the role of air in the compost. 

You can choose to support micro-organisms that need oxygen by turning, or mixing, your compost to give it air in an aerobic system (like compost bins, or tumblers).

You might instead choose to seal your compost away and support micro-organisms that thrive without oxygen in an anaerobic system (like bokashi) which can allow you to process more different kinds of organic waste.

Check out our Closing the Loop page or visit our friends at The Compost Collective for more information and resources.

Take a look through the pictures below. How many different kinds of food scraps can you spot in the compost?

Have a look at the finished compost. How does it look compared to the original ingredients?
​How many adventure hats did you find in the Tonga Garden Area?

Highlight this section to see the answer: 2 Adventure Hats! You've got it!
3. Tool Shed |  Wharau Taputapu
This area is where we store most of the tools and equipment that we use around the garden. We have things like shovels, wheelbarrows, gumboots, hand-trowels, buckets, gloves and other important equipment that help us work effectively and safely in the garden.

At Kelmarna, we think it is important to take care of our tools and keep the place tidy so that we know where everything is, keep everything in good nick and can work safely and effectively in the garden. We try to view each and every tool as a partner in the garden and valuable investment that we want to use properly and help last as long as possible.

How do you look after your tools and equipment?

If you have a garden, this can include your garden tools of course, but it also goes for 'equipment' that we all need and use every day - for example, stuff like books and pencils at school, computers and office supplies at work, pots and pans in the kitchen and even your toothbrush and bath towel in the bathroom!

What tools and equipment can you think of that you use during your usual day?

Where do you keep them? How do you keep them safe, tidy and in good condition?
How many adventure hats did you find in the Tonga Garden Area?

Highlight this section to see the answer: 0 Adventure Hats...oops! None here! Keep looking...
4. Worm Farm |  Pāmu Noke
Welcome to our worm farm! This place is like a spa and resort for the tiger worms that live here at Kelmarna. 

There are a number of different designs and methods for keeping a worm farm, but they all have certain things in common. For one, their home must keep them comfortably dark and damp, as if they were living in their natural habitat - the soil. The happier the wroms are, the better they can help us turn foods scraps into valuable fertiliser for our soil and plants. The worm farm also needs to be designed in a way that we can easily collect and harvest the fertilisers that they produce.

Keeping worms in this way is called vermiculture and can be considered a kind of composting method. In this case, rather than only the super teeny tiny micro-organisms doing all the work, we enlist the help of the worms to eat the scraps, digest them and then return them to us in the form of solid and liquid fertilisers. That's right, the worms' poo and wee are actually some of the most rich and nutritious fertilisers that you can ever share with your soil!

When feeding the worms, it is important to know the worms' particular likes and dislikes. Just like you or I, the worms have certain foods and materials that they like more than others and there are even some that are just plain bad for them to eat. Some of the things to avoid feeding the worms include citrus fruits (like lemons, limes, mandarins and oranges), processed wheat products (like pasta, bread or other baked goods), meat and dairy products (like mince, milk or cheese) and heavy fats and oils (like olive oil or butter).

The worm poo is what we call castings - the solid waste that they literally 'cast' out of their bums and return to the soil. Different kinds of worms live in soil everywhere, feeding on organic matter and returning it to the soil. So by having a worm farm, we are organising the worms to collect their castings in a place where we can gather and use it in the garden.

There are a couple of reasons that the castings are so amazing. One is that the worms' digestive system helps make it nutrient dense, or really healthy - even more so than compost! Another is that the castings have a neutral pH level, which means it's not too acidic or alkaline for the plants. In other words, it's a perfect flavour for the plants to feed from - it won't 'upset their tummies' or burn their roots like some other fertilisers. 

The worm wee is called liquid fertiliser or worm tea because it is a liquid form of nutrients for the soil that must be diluted in order to use. This means that you take a small portion of the dark brown, almost black worm wee and mix it with a larger portion of water until it is a much lighter colour, like a good tea.

There are a few reasons we dilute the worm tea. One is because it is such a strong, nutritious brew that it is too intense to give to the soil or the plants just as it is. For example, you might like butter on your toast or black pepper to season your food, but imagine if you put a whole stick of butter on one slice of toast or dumped a handful of black pepper in your soup! All of a sudden, something that should be quite tasty is actually way too intense for you to eat!

Another reason is that, by diluting the liquid fertiliser, we can make the worm tea last longer or feed more areas of the garden. Imagine again the butter and the pepper. Think of all the dozens of pieces of toast that you could butter if you portioned that large stick of butter better, and imagine all of the dishes you could spice with that handful of black pepper if you used it just a bit more sparingly. We try to do the same thing with the worm tea.

Have you seen worms around your garden, home or neighbourhood?

Do you remember the foods that tiger worms definitely DON'T like to eat? What do you reckon you could do with these types of food scraps rather than feed them to the worms?
How many adventure hats did you find in the Tonga Garden Area?

Highlight this section to see the answer: 1 Adventure Hat! Alright!
5. Chicken Coop |  Whare Heihei
Say hello to the chooks! This is the chicken coop - the place on the farm that our chickens call home.

The coop is designed to keep them comfortable and happy by giving them outdoor space to stretch, an indoor area to sleep in and a cozy nook to lay their eggs.

The floor of the chicken coop is designed to provide for their needs. It is made up of layer upon layer of mulch bark that builds up and breaks down over time. This type of flooring is good for the chickens because it's not too solid, making it easy for them to rustle and shift around if they need. Another benefit is that the layers of mulch provide an excellent habitat for different kinds of insects that the chickens love to eat! So having a mulch floor means the chooks can nestle in it if they like and scratch amongst the bark for a quick snack whenever they're feeling peckish.

The chickens are also often given free range of the garden. When their coop is open, they are allowed to wander the place and perform an important job - weeding. Our chickens are really good at moving through a space and nibbling up many of the stray weeds that they find. This is helpful because it takes work away from the gardeners and turns the unwanted weeds into a useful food source to help the chickens to live, grow and produce eggs!

Yes, eggs! Another of the important roles that chickens play in the garden is by laying eggs. These eggs can be an important food source for the gardeners at lunch and also go into our shop to share with the community. Again, Kelmarna is certified organic, and that means the chickens too! So all of the eggs that we produce are the real deal and certified delicious!
How many adventure hats did you find in the Tonga Garden Area?

Highlight this section to see the answer: 2 Adventure Hats! Were the chooks wearing any hats?
6. Beehives | Pouaka Pī
Buzz on by and say hi to the bees! This area of the garden, along the border of the food forest and the paddocks, is where we keep our beehives. Our hives are vertical frame beehives designed to house the bees in movable frames that are good homes for honeycombs and accessible to our beekeepers for checking in on the bees, keeping them healthy and harvesting delicious, sweet honey!

The entrances to the hives face towards the paddocks to allow the bees a clear, open path into the air and around the garden. This also means that we can move through the food forest and approach the beehives without disturbing the beeline.

The bees are arguably the hardest workers in the entire garden. Every day they buzz around the garden, visiting all kinds of flowers, helping to spread pollen to all sorts of plants and using the nectar they harvest to feed their hive and us with their spectacular honey.

Indeed, we think about the bees as our friends and partners in the garden. We rely on their hard work and are thankful to work hard along side them to build a successful garden.

Even though we know that bees can sting, we also know that they won't sting unless they are really upset. This means that if we don't mess with the bees, they won't mess with us either. If we ever encounter a bee in the garden, it's easy enough not to both them or pay them much mind. We try to simply go about our business and let them go about theirs.

It can be fun to share our space with the bees. If we come across a bee, it's easy enough to let them have their turn, and then when they fly away we can take our turn. Their diligent work ethic is often an inspiration for us to do our best too.
How many adventure hats did you find in the Tonga Garden Area?

Highlight this section to see the answer: 1 Adventure Hat! Just the one...did you catch it?
7. Food Forest | Te Wao Kai
Welcome to the food forest! Like Tonga and Raki,this is a productive area of the garden, but it is organised very differently. Instead of orderly garden beds, here we have a forest garden that includes trees and other perennial plants, or plants that flower and grow year after year.

This type of forest gardening allows us to have all kinds of fruits that grow on trees - like apples, pears, figs and bananas, just to name a few! In fact, we call it a food forest because it is exactly that - a forest that provides us with delicious food!

This area is also much more 'wild' than the conventional, or more normal, areas of the garden. Our Garden Manager and staff do plan what trees and plants we have in the forest, but they are not cultivated, or grown, in neat rows or marked garden beds. Instead, the forest is allowed to twist, turn, rise and fall much more freely and mimic nature a bit more closely.

Considering the amount of time trees take to grow and mature - a matter of years rather than weeks or months - this wilder style of gardening lets us use and change the surrounding space in the mean time.

Once the trees grow tall, they create a canopy, or a covering of leaves and branches, that acts like a kind of roof over the garden. The canopy layer creates a place for more birds to hang out, it dumps stuff like leaves, bark, fruits, flowers and even bird droppings that fall to the soil below and it blocks much of the sunlight in the food forest area, creating more shade for the ground below.

The forest floor supports life differently than in a normal garden bed. There is less sunlight due to the canopy and the tree roots take a great deal of nutrients from the soil to serve the hungry appetites of the trees. So instead of crowded rows of vegetables, here we grow ground cover like herbs that can take care of themselves, shrubs or smaller trees like lemons that don't get too tall and vine crops like pumpkins that can spread out across the forest floor and in this area have no need to worry about stealing space from other plants.

The food forest is a wonderful place to wander and observe because of the wilds ways that it mimics nature!
How many adventure hats did you find in the Tonga Garden Area?

Highlight this section to see the answer: 2 Adventure Hats! You're getting the hang of this!
8. Kitchen | Kīhini, Whare Kai
Welcome to the Kelmarna Kitchen! This is where we prepare meals, eat together or gather for meetings around the long table.

Many years ago, our kitchen building used to be a cow shed for cattle that were once kept on the property before the area was as urban and developed as it is now. The shed has since been adapted and updated to be our hub for cooking, storing and eating food here at Kelmarna Gardens.

​In the kitchen we have most of the basic appliances of a modern kitchen, including a refrigerator for keeping ingredients cold, a stove top for cooking, an oven for baking, a sink for water and washing up, a rack for spices, cabinets for cutlery and kitchenware, a table for sitting around and even space for books about gardening and with tasty recipe books!

We have several kinds of waste collection systems in the kitchen to help sort the different types of waste that we produce while cooking and eating. We have bins for organic scraps to go to the worms, some bins for the compost and we have also have typical bins for recycling glass, plastic and disposing of general waste.

At Kelmarna, we always try our best to minimise the waste that we create in the garden and make sure that everything we use can go back into the system, one way or another!
How many adventure hats did you find in the Tonga Garden Area?

Highlight this section to see the answer: 2 Adventure Hats! That's right!
9. Village Green | Marae Ātea
Welcome to the Kelmarna Gardens Village Green! We mark this area on the map with a big golden star because it is often the main meeting spot for visitors, volunteers, educational sessions or even just lunch in the garden. This is our open green space where there is room enough for us to gather together for a lesson, a meal or a rest.

If you come along for an educational visit, then you will find yourself seated alongside your friends and classmates on our Grand Staircase, sharing ideas and getting ready for activities with Sean, our Education Coordinator, and our amazing team of Farm Education Leaders!

If you are looking for a rest and a spot of shade during a visit to the garden, you can have a seat under our magnificent macrocarpa tree that towers over the village green.

During certain months of the year, we like to host community gatherings or evening dinners that often centre on the village green. Here, there is plenty of space to setup tables, chairs and serve delicious food prepared with ingredients straight from the garden!
How many adventure hats did you find in the Tonga Garden Area?

Highlight this section to see the answer: 1 Adventure Hat! Look closely and you'll see it!
10. Toilet | Wharepaku
Need to use the loo in the garden? You've come to the right place!

Our toilet facility is in it's own little building set just beside the main kitchen building. In here you'll find a toilet to relieve yourself, a sink to wash your hands and even a full shower just in case!

Just like Jafa with his maure or the worms in their farm, it is important for us gardeners and visitors to deal with our waste responsibly in the garden.

It is also massively important to keep clean and wash our hands as often as we can, and especially before we eat!
How many adventure hats did you find in the Tonga Garden Area?

Highlight this section to see the answer: 2 Adventure Hats! Seems to be our lucky number!
11. Shade Houses | Whare Māra
Welcome to the garden's shade houses! We have two hoop house structures, each covered in different materials, where we can control the environment to raise seedlings and keep certain plants to whom we need to give special attention.

One of our shade houses is covered with a green mesh​, or sturdy netting, that creates a barrier to the outside but still allows air to flow through the holes in the mesh. This house is great for raising seedlings because the mesh keeps the seedlings warm and blocks out a good portion of the wind while also allowing light and air inside. In these ways, it helps create a cozy environment for the seedlings to grow quickly and effectively.

The other shade house is covered in a clear polythene, or plastic sheet, that creates more of an indoor environment. Like the mesh shade house, the clear polythene still lets in light for the plants, but it completely blocks wind and air. This allows the structure to act more like a glass house or greenhouse by trapping the energy from the sunlight to make the inside space much warmer and more humid, or steamy, than the outside. In fact, it can get so warm that we built vents into the ceiling that we can open and close to help adjust the climate.

One benefit of both of these shade house structures is that we have irrigation systems installed along the inside frame of the buildings that can operate on a timer to automatically shower the growing seedlings with water at different times of day.

The plants living on the shelves of these shade houses are constantly shifting as we sow new seeds, raise new seedlings and transplant them out into the garden beds where they can grow and thrive!
How many adventure hats did you find in the Tonga Garden Area?

Highlight this section to see the answer: 4 Adventure Hats! Wow, that was tough! Good spotting!
12. Potting Shed | Whare Mahi
Welcome to the potting shed! This is a busy area where a lot of important work gets done. There is plenty of bench space for a number of gardeners to work all at once on different tasks such as planning, sowing seeds and sorting produce.

The potting shed is an outdoor area, but it is covered by a roof awning that extends from the shop building just behind it. This way we can keep the many tools and supplies here safe and dry as well as get different kinds of work done even in the rain.

This area is where we mix potting soil and homemade compost into trays for sowing seeds and raising seedlings. We also store equipment like buckets for weeding and bamboo sticks for propping up plants, installing temporary fencing and other creative uses around the garden.

There are multiple water sources here for rinsing tools, washing our hands and filling watering cans. Above the sink and along the walls there are big blackboards and whiteboards where we record important planning information and schedules such as what plants go where and when each section needs to be watered.

If you ever visit the garden to volunteer or take part in an educational session, then there's a good chance that you'll find yourself working here in the potting shed!
How many adventure hats did you find in the Tonga Garden Area?

Highlight this section to see the answer: 3 Adventure Hats! A hat trick!
13. Office | Whare Pakihi
Welcome to the main office at Kelmarna Gardens! This is where our staff come to work on administrative aspects of running the garden. We have computers, our garden phone line, our printer, file cabinets and various other essential office supplies to make sure that we can run a tight ship and keep the garden organised and moving forward.

The office is where all of our volunteers come, first to sign in when they arrive at the garden and then again to sign out when they are finished for the day. If you ever visit the garden and are looking for assistance or have any questions, the office is one place you can stop by to find a knowledgeable staff member.

We also take advantage of the office space to keep other important things dry and safe. We keep our saved seeds in the office, preserved properly and kept in brown bags that hang above our work space. We also have a tool section of the office where we keep smaller tools and equipment clean, tidy and safe.
How many adventure hats did you find in the Tonga Garden Area?

Highlight this section to see the answer: 0 Adventure Hats! Oop...none here! They must be out in the garden!
14. Shop | Whare Hokohoko
Welcome to the Kelmarna Shop! This is where our produce comes to be sold on site.

Our shop is open certain days and times of the week so you can wander on in and check out what we have available. Everything we sell is sourced directly from the garden, including fruits, vegetables, herbs, salad greens and even honey harvested from our very own bees!

Kelmarna Gardens is a certified organic site, so you can be confident that whatever you take home from us has been grown right here using organic methods to make the best and most delicious food for you and your family!

Our shelves rarely ever look the same. This is because our stock changes depending on the season and what is growing in the garden. The best way to know what we have is to give us a call or just swing on in and have a look for yourself! You'll know what's fresh because it will have been picked from the garden just outside the door!
How many adventure hats did you find in the Tonga Garden Area?

Highlight this section to see the answer: 1 Adventure Hat! We don't sell hats in the shop...just delicious, organic food!
15. The Paddocks | Ngā Pātiki
Welcome to the paddocks! Kelmarna Gardens sits on 4.5 acres, and these open green spaces account for about half of that total area.

The paddocks buffer the north and western borders of the gardens, running downhill to Cox's Creek that trickles past our property and out to Cox's Bay.

Over the years, we have hosted cattle and livestock in these spaces, from cows and sheep to alpacas and of course our resident pony, Jafa!

At present (2020), Jafa is the only resident of our paddocks at Kelmarna. However, we are always thinking of creative ways to use all of our space to build and maintain a sustainable city farm and community garden.
How many adventure hats did you find in the Tonga Garden Area?

Highlight this section to see the answer: 0 Adventure Hats! None in the paddocks...just on Adrian's head!
Mapping Your World
With permission, get out your notebook or a piece of paper and your favourite colouring materials for drawing. You're going to make your own map!

You can choose to make a map of different places that are important or special to you. Maybe start by mapping out your house, then go a bit bigger to make a map of your neighbourhood. Can you fit all of the rooms in your house into your map? Can you remember all of the street names in your neighbourhood and get them to connect up correctly? Here's a hint, take a look at resources like Google Maps for help!

You can also see if you can draw a map of your school and label each of the different classrooms around the school. You can even go as big as making a map of the country and mark the cities and towns that you have been to before.

Once you've drawn your map, decorate it with colours and features that stand out to you. Make it your own! Then see if you can use your map to give your family directions around the house, around the neighbourhood, through your school or on an imaginary trip around New Zealand!

Bonus: Once you get the hang of it, you can use your awesome cartography skills, or map-making skills, to create a whole new world of your own by making a map of an imaginary place that you invent yourself! What kinds of features or landmarks are there in your world? Are there streets and houses or gardens and other natural spaces? Be creative and see what you come up with!

Materials
  • notebook or paper
  • coloured pencils, crayons or markers
  • atlas (physical or online) for reference (optional)
Kelmarna Gardens Map Quiz
So, how well do you know Kelmarna Gardens? Now that you've taken the tour, test your knowledge with our map quiz!

​With permission, download the PDF for this activity. Print out the materials or trace over them in your notebook or on a piece of paper. Test your knowledge of Kelmarna by matching the landmarks with their proper locations!

First, print or trace the map of Kelmarna. Then, print or trace the landmark icons as well and cut them out so that you can move them around on the map. Think about what landmarks you remember, where they belong on the map and stick the landmark icons on the spots in the garden that you think matches.

As you place each landmark on the map discuss the importance of each one and what happens in that area of the garden. Then, when you think you have everything in the right place, take a look at the answer key map to see how well you did! Remember, you can always go back to any section of the virtual tour to refresh your understanding of each place and why it's important to Kelmarna.

Bonus: Try combining this activity with the activity above (Mapping Your World). Take the map that you've created of your school, home or neighbourhood and create a sheet of icons for each of your landmarks. Then challenge your friends or family to try to place each of them in the proper location. Once they've had a chance, go over the answers and help explain the significance of each location to the place your map represents.

Materials
Following Up: The Complete Map of Kelmarna!
Well, there you have it! The complete map of Kelmarna Gardens with all the landmarks labeled in the proper spots.

Let's think about the places you visited in the garden, what you've discovered and what more you want to learn!


What did you learn about the garden by exploring all of these different places where all sorts of different jobs get done?


Which areas would you be most excited to visit and explore?

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Do you have any areas like these around your school, home or commnuity?


The next time you come to Kelmarna Gardens, challenge yourself to find all of these spots in person!

​We look forward to seeing you then!​
Visit our home page for information on visiting the garden, and get in touch with our Farm Education Programme by emailing our Farm Education Coordinator, Sean, at education@kelmarnagardens.nz
Downloadable Files on this page:
kelmarna_gardens_-_map_activity__download_.pdf
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