New Fruit Trees and some New Faces in the Garden

 We had some new faces in the garden this week.  First years in 1W2 Tutor Group.  We have designed a new garden near the school building, but are not quite ready to start building it yet.  We applied for free fruit trees from the "Grounds for Learning" charity and they arrived this week - along with harsh frosty weather!

 On Tuesday, they weeded the ground...

 ...the trees arrived on Wednesday...

 ...two plum trees and six apple trees to create an orchard...

...so on Thursday, we "heeled them in" which means we dug a trench and covered the roots with soil to protect them from drying out or getting frosted until we are ready to plant them properly.

 We thought a layer of straw would help to keep them warm too!

Meanwhile, the DiGGers were busy cutting back the wild flowers and weeding the ground in readiness for re-sowing in Spring.  Danielle also collected some seed that was still in the pods and Callum cut back the willow seat some more.  We will keep the cuttings either to re-plant as trees or use to weave mini raised beds.

Yet more wind! Cutting back Cabbages

 Spot the compost bin!  Again this week, high winds have taken their toll on our garden.  After collecting various items strewn around (including more panels from the OJ Greenhouse), we realised that the window panel had broken.  It's definitely a week spot - the aluminium frame has sheered off in one corner so we'll have to see if we can fix it.

Our temporary fix of canes helped some panes to stay in place - just!

 On Thursday, we made a start cutting back the walking stick cabbages.  We hope to dry the larger stems to see if they will actually make walking sticks!

Our next job will be weeding, to prepare for this year's planting.  It seems a slow process this winter as the ground has been frozen for most of the time since the New Year!  In fact, we still have hedge plants to get into the ground as well - all good fun!

A Quiet Week

 This week, the wintry weather continued.  On Wednesday, we met indoors to talk about the upcoming potato day.  We started to count seeds into a jar for a competition on the seed swap table.  On Thursday, we pulled last week's fat ball out of the tub and put it on the bird table.

We also needed to replace 3 panels again in the greenhouse.  When the weather is warmer and drier, we will put sealant round each pane to help keep it secure.  In the meantime, we'll just keep our fingers crossed that we don't have such severe winds again - as this time, there were 80 mph gusts!