We had some extra help in the garden this week. A group of boys who usually go to Evanton woods to learn bush-craft skills and ecology had their session cancelled last minute due to illness, so I roped them into helping dig up some of the trees at the top of the garden...
...we are clearing the patch to create more growing space. They worked really hard despite the extreme cold - well done boys!
The main theme of this week has been WIND - lots of it. You can see here, sheets that have blown out of the greenhouse, along with several pots that had blown away.
We managed to fix them back in - but really need to find a better way of securing them as the wire clips just don't seem to manage!
There were some birds bobbing about the garden on Thursday - we saw a sparrow, robin and blackbird. Simona put some seed out for them. Next week we hope to clean out the feeders to refill them, and make some fat balls for the birds too.
Meanwhile, Simona, Sophia and Anaya rake leaves...
...they are a great resource! We have a big leaf mold pile that will rot down and give us free soil conditioner next year.
On Thursday after school, Miss Swalllow visited a local Herb Nursery and was very pleased to be shown around. The owner Mr Ross is happy to help with the "Certificate in Practical Horticulture" next year by giving us a tour to see a working nursery and also showing us how to take hardwood cuttings in the Autumn. It will be good to have a nursery area of our own to bring on young plants from our stock here at the Academy.
Oh yes! The "excellent news" in the title is that we are proud to have achieved the RHS level 3 in their Gardening for Schools Benchmark scheme. This is not only due to DiGGers' activities but testament to the fact that more people now use the garden for different purposes - for example, S2 gardening, S3 computing studies (for their photography work) and the Autism base. Also, the fact that the Parent council now help us raise funds, and that our volunteer team came in over the summer holidays to look after things. It also acknowledges good practise within school like composting, using mulches to reduce water loss from the soil as well as improving it, collecting rain water in the butts for watering the garden and creating bug-hotels and habitat to encourage more wildlife onto our site.
Our well-won prize is a voucher for a "large vegetable garden". We can redeem the voucher when we are ready next spring - and will receive 242 plug plants - a whole range of vegetables, salad and herbs from rocket to runner beans, cauliflower to sweet corn!! So watch this space to see them arrive, get planted and grow next year! A big "Thank You" to the Royal Horticultural Society!
The plants will come from "rocket gardens" - you can see more about it on their web site:
www.rocketgardens.co.uk
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