Visitors and Lots of Activity during the last week of term!

Summary of our week:

• Friday last: Planting up sensory plants in the seating area
• Tuesday: Activity day 1: planting fruit trees and lots of veg (plus weeding as always!)
• Wednesday: Activity day 2: treating the shed and St Clements pupils visiting to help us sow wild flowers
• Thursday: Planting up hanging baskets and giving our volunteer "Community DiGGers" a tour of the garden

Last Friday the "Waste Not Want Not" class planted up the new seating area with "sensory plants" in each corner - ones that are colourful (sight), scented, edible and very soft to touch.

 Pupils are using the benches a lot during break times which is great.

On Tuesday, Mr Dolan and Ms Gould did a marvellous job weeding the hedge amongst other things.  It was great to have so much help in the garden.

 We put up a marquee in case it rained and decided to keep it up until the autumn as it's cheerful!

The Betty MacKenzie greenhouse was weeded and tidied (we still need to repair the Olympic Jubilee one!)

 Bartek and Connorhan worked really hard over the two activity days - well done boys!  Here they are planting out spinach, chard and lettuce...

 ...helping with the weeding...

 taking bark up to lay around the base of the hedge plants...

 ...and trying to work out how the marquee fits together (without instructions!)

 It was one of those jobs where you really needed six pairs of hands!

 We started the day with a big challenge - to plant two apple trees in the new garden.

This involved digging holes...

...cutting turf...

 ...making a good mix of soil to plant the tree in, then staking the tree...

...before watering it in.  Connorhan decides to simulate actual rain from a great height!

 The finished product - they both deserve the first apple from each of their trees in the autumn!

 On Thursday we started early: 8.20 am.  Connorhan uses an axe to sharpen a post ready for hanging bug hotels off later in the day.

 ...not quite a hunting spear, but a pretty good point!

 Are they space men, or snow men???  Ready to treat the shed!

They worked really hard and had the job done within an hour!  Our next job in August is to put new felt on the roof.

 Next we had visitors from St Clements school.  After everyone introduced themselves, we mixed wild flower seeds with dry sand...

...ready to broadcast them along the edge of the hedgerow.

 We then made "bug hotels" out of tins, plastic bottles, straw, wool, bark, bamboo...pretty much anything!

 We hung them with string above where the wild flowers will grow, so some of the insects will hopefully settle in there after visiting the flowers.

 Meanwhile, Connorhan and Bartek made a sensational cane support for the runner beans and peas!

Mrs Cormack came out to see what was going on, and said it was certainly a gold award winner!

 After a break, the group got cracking again and planted up potatoes into bags - it's rather late, but there's still time for them to grow during the long summer days.

We lined them up against the border where our other fruit trees are temporarily planted.

 Everyone enjoyed a lunch break, then it was time for them to go...

Amal was happy to take some potatoes and a chard plant away with him!

 We continued working.  Danielle and Lexie made "comfry stew" that we will leave to steep over the summer holidays.

 Lots more planting...

 ...and more help with weeding - thank you to everyone who pitched in and worked so hard!

 Finally, we dug over the large raised bed.  We mixed in manure and rotted bark to help improve the soil...

...then set out plants that have been donated to us by the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh.  This is going to be our "herbaceous border" so we can learn the Latin names of all the plants and enjoy the variety.  We hope to replace the wood with cobbles or bricks to make a path so we can gain access to weed the border in future.

 Finally, on Thursday, we planted up geraniums and lobelia into hanging baskets for the shed.

 The great thing is, we have a band of volunteers this summer to look after the garden for us...

...here, Denise and Primrose enjoy a tour of the garden (whilst making notes of all the jobs still to do!)  We hope you enjoy your time in the garden and we look forward to returning to lovely flowers and produce this year instead of weeds!!

Starting a New Garden and taking Delivery of More Soil!

 Last Friday, 2W2 - a class of twenty second year pupils took turns to help start our new garden.  The Woodblocx team came in to work with them (see woodblocx.co.uk to see their clever system).  It was a lovely sunny day and they worked really hard.

 Here, pupils are left to co-ordinate themselves as a team and work out the layout of the different sized blocks.

 They have already dug out a level area to place the final design and were then doing to start hammering pegs into the holes.

 Connorhan came along to help - enjoying a bit of "Jenga" here too!

 ...removing some pegs from the wrong holes!

 Simona connecting the blocks together.

 The finished product after a hard day's work!

 On Wednesday, Mr Lockett came in with his trusty tractor and skilfully manoeuvred up to each planter...

 ...so we could get the soil into the correct spot.

 He then brought us some more soil into the main garden, as we had some new raised beds that were still empty.

 His wife came to help as well...great news is that we now have a group of community members who are interested to come and help out with weeding and general garden maintenance on a regular basis.

 We also put what was left into our old builder's bag, so we have it ready to use whenever we need it.

 It didn't take long for our resident blackbird to come over looking for worms!

 There was also a young female blackbird looking around on the new seating area too.

 On Wednesday, we discovered that the solitary wasp's nest that has been hanging in the greenhouse for about 2 years has been taken over by social wasps.  There were about ten wasps around it, and we took it down because we don't want a huge wasp's next in the greenhouse!  Here you can see the white eggs and pale brown larvae - they were wriggling around.  In time, there would be hundreds of wasps, so we have caught it before they have put too much effort in - hopefully, they'll move off and find somewhere else to settle.

 In the meantime, Danielle checks out the strawberries - there a quite a few beginning to ripen.

We started to mix some rotted wood chip, horse manure and sand into the soil to help condition it as when it's dry, it goes very hard.  This should give it a better structure to help it hold moisture.