All hands on deck!

A busy week, to get the garden ready for leaving alone for two weeks over the Easter holidays! A record attendance on Thursday meant the garden was a hive of activity! Also, with the

beautiful hot weather earlier in the week, we enjoyed eating our lunch in the garden.

On Wednesday, Connorhan helps to rake the ground for the second greenhouse to be delivered. Lewis, his dad and grand-dad worked hard on Thursday evening to deliver it along with slabs and staging for the inside. More levelling is needed after the holidays before we fix it down and put the plastic sheets back in.

Lewis and Catriona potted on bedding plants on Wednesday.
On Thursday, we all got cracking to fill the "lowered bed" ready to plant our fruit bushes (which we did on Friday - just in time before the holidays! See pictures below).

Grigor, Annie, Charlotte and Catriona continued potting on the bedding plants.
Connorhan and Lexi dig up soil that has been standing since the path was built (it is the upturned turf the path builders removed that has now rotted down well).
Lewis collects well rotted leaf mold (the very first bags we collected before the garden was even started, so it's now over two years old!)

We also used some of our own compost produced from canteen waste, shredded paper and cardboard. We put all these into the lowered bed and started to mix it.

Miss Swallow has also been planting out willow sticks that we hope will grow into trees for coppicing in future years.

Filling Raised Beds and Making Pots

This week, we enjoyed a lovely spring week in the garden.

Danielle demonstrates how to make pots from strips of newspaper.

We will be using them after the Easter break for sowing seeds.
Meanwhile, Connorhan and Lewis are busy adding a layer of upturned turf into the bottom of the raised beds they levelled last week (the one in the foreground is not levelled yet!)

On Thursday, everyone helped to take soil - the last of our donated pile - to fill the raised beds.
I wonder what Danielle said to tickle Lewis so much!!
Lexi helps to fill the raised bed.

On Thursday this week, there was a parents' evening and the Malaysia group had a bake sale to raise money for their trip. Lewis makes spectacular fairy cakes!!
The leeks are still growing away quietly!
We have started chitting the Blue Belle potatoes for this year's competition. We will let pupils "adopt a potato" for £1. We'll then plant them into bags and put them on display to the public through the summer months for people to guess which plant will grow the most weight of potatoes. Money raised will be for a local cause this year - the Highland Hospice that supports cancer patients and their families. Watch this space for more news - we plan to launch it after the Easter break!

Weeding and Digging in Raised Beds

This week has been quite spring-like; warmer temperatures and some sunshine. Above, Danielle and Grigor prepare to cut back dead matter and weed the wild flower bed.
Lewis (just out of shot), Catriona, Connorhan and Charlotte (yes, welcome back Charlotte!) dig in three more raised beds.
Meanwhile, Miss Swallow has been shoring up another area ready to level off for a greenhouse we are being given (hopefully to arrive after Easter).

Wintry Spring! Staff get DiGGing!

Spring seemed to be put on hold a little this week. On Wednesday, it was sunny but very cold when we gathered for lunch in the shed. By the end of lunchtime, it was snowing and blowing a gale!! Connorhan, Danielle and Catriona went up to our 'old' site by the astro-turf pitch to re-claim two raised beds that had been left up there. They needed lifting and carrying down to our current site.

On Thursday, we stayed in the shed out of the cold wind and potted on geraniums for the summer colour. We didn't realise that they are not very good for insects, having very little pollen, so next year will choose more carefully.

On Friday, we had our second "staff green gym". Mr MacFarlane and Miss Swallow continued turning turf for our hedgerow.

Danielle helped out by taking photographs and collecting stones that we unearthed.
Below you can see week 1 of the staff green gym: Mrs Mackie and Mrs Russell joined Mr MacFarlane and Miss Swallow to start digging the hedgerow. Both lunchtimes so far have been lovely and sunny despite the cold.

Digging a hole and Finding Red Kale seeds.

This week we did a few jobs. Above you can see Catriona and Grigor searching out Red Kale Seeds from the dried pods. They were given to us at the potato day! We will plant them into small home-made pots soon.

Danielle is helping to dig a hole (and yes, her spade does look like a pogo-stick!). The hole was started by the Elective class. We decided it was going to be a "Lowered Bed" as opposed to a "Raised Bed" because we are digging down into rubble and stony soil so that we can sift it, mix in better quality soil and some leaf mold then plant out six fruit trees that we bought on the Potato Day. Two gooseberries, two red currents and two white currents.

The digging is hard work but we are making steady progress. Also this week, we cordoned off the Scots Pine trees that we have re-planted to stop pupils in their football boots running across the area and stepping on the saplings!

On Wednesday, Connorhan and Miss Swallow also used the tape to lay on the ground and mark off where we would like to plant a hedge. There is going to be a "Staff Green Gym" on Friday lunchtime, to start turning the turf for it to rot down ready for planting hedgerow plants in the autumn. Also, we plan to sow wild flowers (next month) on each side of it to encourage insects to visit the garden.