Shed finished, tyres ready for beans.

Another week goes by and we have got more jobs done! As you can see above, the shed is now finished - we put the felt on the roof on Friday as well as fitting the windows and doors. On Monday we filled three tyres with soil and tied canes ready for planting runner beans. You can also see that our brussel sprout plants are doing well:

Greenhouse finished, shed started!

Here you can see the greenhouse which has been anchored into the ground and there are now some seedlings in it. We didn't have any washers at the end of the day on Monday, so we improvised as you can see below - let's hope that makes it a lucky greenhouse!

Today, we made a start on the shed. It took a long time to get the base level and straight. It was hard work carrying everything down from the store and there is still more to do to get it finished.

Nearly there with the greenhouse!

This has been a busy week. On Monday, we dug some flat areas and turned turf ready for tyres to be filled with soil. We also used an axe, fork and rake to level out a platform for the greenhouse. Miss Swallow spent some extra time after school making a wooden holding frame to allow us to shovel a load of gravel making a good flat area ready for the greenhouse.

Wednesday, we transported lots of barrows of the gravel down to the plot. Below you can see us inventing a new passtime - gravel dancing - to tread it all down!We didn't meet on Friday as Ross County football were visiting the school on their way to their cup final match in Hampden!

Also, Mr MacKenzie who bought us the greenhouse, came in to help Miss Swallow put it together on Wednesday and again on Thursday - it's still not finished (fiddly but we are almost there!)

We need to get the greenhouse up!

This week, we were off on holiday on Monday. We planted brussel sprout plants into raised beds on Wednesday then we started off more potatoes in bags and planted onions between the sprouts on Friday.

Miss Swallow has taken some seedlings home to repot and look after, and we have more under our cloche but the slugs are going to be our enemy!! Some seedlings have been eaten already which is why we really want to get the greenhouse up asap! We are going to level a platform and lay grit this coming week (slugs hate crawling over grit!), then hopefully Mr MacKenzie can come to help put the greenhouse up.

Oh yes! We featured in the North Star too this week - with details about the Sunflower competition. The seedlings are coming on nicely - look out for a photo of them in our very own greenhouse next week (hopefully!)

Below you can see lettuce (in the tray), peas, corgettes and pumpkins and a mung bean sprout that Lewis planted instead of eating it, just to see what happened!

More seeds sown

This week, we have been sowing more seeds. We put a cloche in the garden to protect the seeds until we can put up the greenhouse. So now we have sown courgettes, pumpkins, more sunflowers (to brighten up our own plot too!), sweet peas, nasturtiams and four different varieties of lettuce! We still need to plant up the strawberry pot and on Friday we will be digging to level up and prepare raised beds ready for onions next week.

We also started more beans in the sprouter - this time chick peas, fennugreek and alfalfa to see how they taste on Friday! Also, look out for an article in the North Star this Friday about the sunflower competition.

Sunflower Competition Gets Underway

Pupils came today to the drama studio and planted sunflower seeds into our home-made modules. This is the start of the competition. We have watered them in and will now wait for them to appear! People also enjoyed tasting our first batch of sprouted beans - consensus was that the nuttier tasting aduki beans were favourites though the mung beans went down well too! Earlier in the week, we constructed our strawberry tub. We hope to plant it up next Monday.

Return after Easter Break

Unfortunately there was some vandalism on the plot before the Easter break, so we decided to move to a different spot! This means we are "back to square one" in some ways and there is a lot of work ahead. Our spirits are not dimmed however - tomorrow we plant potatoes into bags so that will be two crops "in the ground". This term will be very busy now the weather is warmer.

Also next Wednesday we launch our "Sunflower Growing competition". Twenty pupils (first come first served) can come to the drama studio at 1.20pm and pay £1 to plant a Giant Sunflower seed and write their name on a big pot. We will take care of the seedlings and plant them into the big pots in June when they will be put on display at Frank Nicol's garden centre in Dingwall. Anyone can visit to see them growing, and guess which will grow the tallest (and how tall it will be!) The pupil with the tallest flower in September will win a cash prize whilst the person who guesses the closest height wins a £20 voucher to spend in the garden centre. All money raised will go towards buying a goat for a family in Africa through the "Oxfam Unwrapped" scheme - so please go along to join in the fun!

Tools Appeal: We believe in "recycle, re-use" so if anyone has any unwanted garden tools or equipement that you think might be useful to us, please contact the school or send an email to susan.swallow@dingwallacademy.highland.sch.uk. Below is a "wish list" of things that we currently need to give you some idea!

Wheelbarrows, rakes, spades, forks, water butts, guttering, chicken wire, pots. Feel free to email if you have anything you think we might like - even seeds and plants too! Many thanks in advance.