Feeding Pumpkins and Starting to build our new Composting Zone

On Wednesday this week, we took a look around the garden.  There has been a lot of wind and rain during the holidays so there are many fallen leaves about and all the raised beds have had a good watering.

 We still watered the pumpkins, to feed them with our comfrey solution.

 Sara spotting as many pumpkins as possible...

 ...lots of small ones...

 ...and a few getting larger too.

Danielle and Sara also got cracking with our "delux" leaf rakes - they make the job a lot quicker and easier!

 Meanwhile, the Forest School group cut us some lengths of wood and brought them back to the school garden.

 We will use the planks to clad the sides of a new 3-bay compost bin that we plan to make.

 The lengths of wood were left over from making the cabin at Evanton Woods (luckily for us!)

On Thursday, Carrie and Connorhan started hammering the first post to make the new compost heap.  We plan to create a neater "composting zone" in the garden with an array of different types of composting going on along with an information display board...watch this space as we progress!

Carrie looking menacing with the sledge hammer!!  Watch out Connorhan!

Measuring Sunflowers and Watering Pumpkins

A busy couple of weeks before the October holidays.

 We collected the sunflowers from Frank Nicols' garden centre and measured them.

  The tallest one was number 2 at 2 metres and 17 cm.  We will announce the winners after the holidays!

Danielle took some of the sunflower seeds home - for Cinnamon the hamster to enjoy!

 Meanwhile, the pumpkins continue to grow and we gave them another watering with our very smelly comfrey feed!

 Just before the holidays, we also had cause for celebration - Danielle turned 18!!

That meant we just had to have some birthday cake in the shed!!  Mr Macfarlane heard there was cake in the offing, so he came to join in too!  Happy Birthday Danielle!

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.

Collecting Seeds

 This week, we made our own paper seed packets...and collected seed from the herbaceous border.

Amongst them were geum seeds, aquilegia, bergenia and honesty seeds.  We will keep them in a drawer in Miss Swallow's room where it is cool, dark and dry.  We can then sow them next spring.

Welcome Back

We returned this week from our summer holidays.  The garden is looking pretty good thanks to our volunteers coming in to weed and water particularly in the first few weeks when the weather was dry.  Unfortunately, there is no platform ready for our Outdoor Classroom!  This is a continuing saga as negotiations are still going on to find a place for us to build it - watch this space!

The fruit trees have fruited well - apples and plums.  We tasted the apples and hope to make a crumble in the coming weeks when more ripen.

 The barrels at the front entrance to the school were not looking too good!

 Luckily the Forest School Group were able to step in and empty them ready for planting with winter pansies.

 Danielle and Dale sweep up afterwards.

We also managed to make our own hot chocolate for break - just like when we are in the Woodland.  We even managed to get the Ghillie Kettle to whistle for us this time!

 On Wednesday, Sara and Danielle had a really healthy lunch - they are into Japanese food and sushi, so had an artistically arranged packed lunch!

 It is good to see everyone back and ready to garden...

 ...we weeded the pumpkin pile and gave them a water before mulching them with the soil we took from the barrels at the front entrance.

 Simona did a particularly good job with the weeds!

 The plants are big and healthy...

...though the pumpkins are still quite small.  Hopefully they will swell in the next month or so.

 On Thursday, Simona selected a lettuce...

 and cut it with a knife

 It was lovely - green and frilly!

 We washed it in fresh water, then ate it with humous for lunch.

Our first produce this year!  We have lots of runner beans coming too but they are still quite small.

 Also this week, a parcel arrived from Morrisons - with a banner and...

 self-assemble box in the shape of a wheelbarrow!

 We didn't waste any time...

 ...and are now collecting vouchers for gardening equipment.  They are available for the next couple of months, so anyone shopping in Morrisons - please drop your vouchers into school; the box is just outside the main office.  There are many things we could get from a polytunnel or a wormery to a bird box or packs of seeds.

Finally, we had an important visitor call in to see what was going on in the garden and how things have progressed since last year.  It was Mr Stott from the RHS It's Your Neighbourhood scheme.  He took a good look around and gave Miss Swallow some advice on pruning and seed collection.  We look forward to his assessment of how we are getting on!