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=Marshall Laing Primary School HABITATS= Mervyn, Laura, Sonia, Emily, Prawesh and Devon are interested in Native Small Plants. Below is our focus question for Inquiry. "What native small plants do we need that would attract and sustain native birds and insects to our outside environment?"

Further questions are ...
 * How can we keep our native plants without them dying?

10FY looked at one example which is Manuka sometimes known as tea tree.It is a small twiggy tree with small dark green leaves.It is a small plant which attracts bees which produce Manuka honey. I suggest that in order to attract native animals and insects that you plant these native grassessuch as silver tussock, the dwarf kowhai and teh karo red. You could also plant the native lilac in order to attract bees and other flying pollen-spreaders.

Each native plant needs minerals to survive and these minerals are nitrogen, magnesium and iron whcih can be found in the soil. The plants take these in through their roots but sometimes need to have fertiliser added to the souils to give them all they need.

To stop the plants from drying out you could make sure that after planting them that you make sure each plant is watered and that a top up of gravel or bark is put around each plant. This will allow the plant to soak up water and minerals.