Work work work!

 Last week, we weeded the greenhouse sites - ready to replace them before the winter winds set in!  Above you can see the horror in Danielle's face...

 ...that's better...almost weed free!

 This week, we did some "potting up".  Thanks to Mrs MacBeath for her overgrown spider plant!

 Danielle cuts the young plants from the parent...

 ...whilst Sara dishes out potting compost for each of us to use.

In amongst the pots, we found several slug eggs!  We put them into the compost heap so that can eat our rotting material!

Meanwhile, this week the Interdisciplinary class unloaded a trailer of wood chip to freshen up the paths from the shed to where the greenhouses will be again soon!

Produce for Sale and Willow to Weave

 This week we picked lots of runner beans - and managed to sell them all to members of staff!  This raised £14 for the club and we hope to pick more again next week too.  We will freeze some for our Christmas dinner of course!

We also trimmed the willow seat, stripped the leaves from the twigs and...

 ...used them to weave a small edging panel on one of the raised beds...

...this will help to contain taller plants as they grow in future.  We also re-planted some sticks into the edge of the willow seat, to help thicken it out next year.

 We also harvested the enormous seed pod from our snakes-head lily.  Each little green and white piece contains anything from one to four or even five white seeds!

We are slowly gathering the seeds to dry and will try germinating some next spring.

Feeding Our Plants

 This week we started mixing our comfrey solution with water - one jam jar of comfrey into one full watering can.  This makes a great food for our fruiting plants.  Before we tipped the jar into the watering can however, we had to check carefully to make sure we didn't have water beetles in it!

The beetles are living in the bucket of comfrey solution so we wanted to leave them there!

 The solution is high in phosphorous which is great for flowers and ripening fruit...

...like our pumpkins...

 ...and runner beans which are now producing lots of long pods.

 Danielle and Dale both took some home to cook for tea.

We also started "mulching" our herbaceous border.  This means we weeded between the plants then spread a deep layer of rotted bark over the soil.  This will prevent weeds growing as it cuts out their light and also in time will be taken down into the soil by worms to improve its structure.