First Potatoes Planted and Wicker Seat Settles in!

This week the weather stayed dry for us again. On Tuesday, Miss Swallow collected some bags of topsoil from a local estate, so we could start filling the willow seat constructed last week.

Danielle brings a barrow to get the top soil.

Shovelling the soil into the wicker seat. It's about half full now, so will need another trip for more soil maybe next week!

Time was getting on, so we lifted and tipped the wheelbarrows!

In the greenhouse, the peas have started shooting.

On Thursday, we planted two varieties of potato into bags - "King Edwards", and "Rocket".

We are going to photograph one bag every week as it grows, and weigh how much produce we get from it at the end. Then we will animate the images on the computer, to see its growth speeded up!

We used B&Q compost, so they will have some food to get them started.

See how the willow seat has settled in - shoots have appeared within the last week!

A "Poo" day and Building a Wicker Bench!

We were very lucky with the weather this week, and got lots done! On Tuesday, Miss Swallow collected sacks of well rotted horse manure from a local small-holding. After lunch on Wednesday, the club dug it in to the raised beds.

"Put your back into it guys!" This will help enrich and aerate the soil.
On Thursday, we then covered them with weed barrier which will also help to warm the soil before we plant things out later in Spring.

Meanwhile, Danielle got cracking with the weeding - we are almost through all the raised beds now!

Mr MacFarlane also came out to lend a hand with the weeding. On Thursday, the rural studies class spent the morning with Ian Paterson creating a willow structure. It was forecasted to rain but even though it was cold, the sun shone all day! They did a fabulous job!

Natural materials to create a natural shelter for us to sit. In time, the bench will thicken and continue to grow giving us a great spot to relax and view the garden from. It now needs filling with topsoil to keep the wicker moist, and we shall put planks on top to sit on - hopefully within the next week or so. We even had time on Thursday to rake the last of the winter debris (twigs and leaves) for the leaf-mold pile. It made the garden feel a lot tidier.

Winter Returns!

This week was cold, blustery and snowy! On Wednesday, we made more paper pots in the shed. Unfortunately the winter weather meant that the building of the Willow Seating has been postponed until next Thursday.Despite this, Miss Swallow managed to spend some time in the garden, digging in more raised beds in case we can get more top soil delivered. We then made and started filling more pots at lunch time just as the snow really set in!

Greenhouse Naming Ceremony

This week, we invited Mr MacKenzie to officially "name" the greenhouse he bought us last year! We hung the Betty MacKenzie Greenhouse signs inside and strung a ribbon across the entrance. Above you can see him just as he has cut the ribbon. We could then put the first seeds of the year inside and enjoy a carrot cake bought for the occasion!

Filling pots with seed compost on Wednesday A "before and after" photo shows our pots made out of old newspaper.Eating lunch before sowing the pea and bean seeds on Thursday.

Also, Mr MacKenzie helped Miss Swallow to fix guttering to the shed so now we need to get the water butts in place to collect the rain water!