Clear Wintry Weather

                                         A lovely sunny frosty morning...

                                          ...it took a while to get into the shed as the lock was frozen!

 This week our aim was to fix the Olympic Jubilee Greenhouse

                                                  You can see panels missing on all sides!

                           Luckily, the contents are mostly waterproof, so no damage done.

                On Wednesday, Danielle cut some lengths of cane...

...and we wedged them into the frame to hold the panels back in place. 

Meanwhile, the Betty MacKenzie greenhouse sits snuggly in the frost!

 Teasels provide seeds for the birds.

 On Thursday, we cut back some of the Walking Stick Cabbages and mixed them into the compost with the canteen waste.

Garden Survives Rough Wind

 Happy New Year to everyone! 

 DiGGers are back and we have been checking out the state of the garden.  There was some very high wind during the holidays, and we are grateful to James the caretaker for collecting our Olympic Jubilee Greenhouse panels that were blown out as they were scattered about the school grounds!

 The panels were all clipped in, but we need to add extra struts to hold them more securely as they are rather long and wind obviously got in underneath them.  It is a second-hand greenhouse.  When it was new, it had plastic components that the panels slotted into at the bottom which helped hold them in place.  These had degraded and broken, so we didn't use them when we assembled it.  We have a plan however - look out next week hopefully to see a fixed and restored greenhouse!

 Meanwhile, the Betty MacKenzie Greenhouse withstood the wind well.  Here you can see the hedge plants that we stored in there over the holidays, protected against frost by wrapping them in shredded bark.

 We planted three more into the hedge line on Thursday and watered them in well.

 The hedge line is looking good.  Just needs covering with bark chips once we have planted the whole hedge.  We also need to weed the wild flowers on the right hand side, ready for the seeds to be re-sown later in the year.

 The rest of the garden is pretty much as expected!  Wintry and dormant, waiting for Spring to arrive.  We did see two blue tits at the bird table on Wednesday, so filled the feeder up for them.

 The path needs raking as the wet leaves are quite slippery.  There are also some branches and sticks that have fallen from the trees overhead.  They need gathering up for our "stick pile".

Also, the shed roof still needs attention.  Our "patch" is still letting in water as it is wet inside.  We may need to buy a whole roll of new felt to overcome the leak.

Roots and Shoots 2012 Awards

 On 3rd December, Lewis and Charlotte along with two pupils from the "Fantastic Plastic" recycling elective course were at the Zoological Society of London's headquarters in Regents Park.  They presented their Dingwall Academy activities to Jane Goodall and her Roots n Shoots charity and were presented with the Gold Award.

 It was a real privilege to meet Dr Jane Goodall in person.

 They gave a talk and presentation with lots of photos in.

 The Roots n Shoots charity encourages the Youth of today to do something to help people, animals and the environment that we all depend upon.  To see more photos of the event, visit the charity's website at: http://www.rootsnshoots.org.uk/blog/2012/12/08/jane-goodalls-roots-shoots-awards-2012/

Photos on this page were taken by Miss Canham who accompanied the group on their overnight journey to London.

Christmas Dinner

A snowy Wednesday this week saw us in the shed enjoying our Christmas dinner.

 It felt nice and spacious after we cleaned it out last week.

 Par boiling the vegetables before roasting and frying the bacon/garlic/walnuts/sprouts and curly kale mix.  We didn't grow sprouts this year, so had to buy those in!  The vegetables included several varieties of our own potatoes - Blue Belle, Highland Burgundy Red, Golden Wonder and Smile.  We also enjoyed sweet potato, butternut squash and swede in roasted selection.

 Keep that tongue in Danielle!  Carrying hot food out to the shed: Cameron carries the mash, Danielle the roast vegetables and Grigor the jug of gravy.

It was a freezing day, but the crowd and hot food soon warmed up the shed!   

 We enjoyed the bad cracker jokes!  Everyone had seconds and even "thirds".

We had mince pies for second course, and when the bell went, there was nothing left!  A feast enjoyed by all!  Happy Christmas to all members and I look forward to seeing you in the New Year for more gardening.  Happy Christmas also to our followers - we hope you have enjoyed following our activities this year, and look forward to your comments next Year.

Feeding the Birds

 We have not managed to plant any more hedge trees this week as the ground has been frozen!  Instead, we filled the bird feeders and hung them up (above).

 

Danielle and Connorhan also started putting up decorations in the shed ready for our Christmas Dinner next week!  We moved lots of "stuff" - boxes, bits of timber etc into the greenhouse for temporary storage in order to create space in our shed.  Now it needs a good sweep ready for setting the table up.

Hedge Planting

 It's been a cold week.  The frost stayed on the ground all day Thursday.  Above you can see Cameron, Kyle and Callum planting hedge plants.  We finally made a start!  It's very stony ground however so the going was slow.

 On Thursday, Miss Swallow dug lots of holes ready for planting so next week we should get more done.  Here you can see Danielle and Lexie picking up stones for the stone pile.

 We will fill the holes using the soil from our potato competition bags, to give the trees a better start.

 We used carpet strips so keep the frost off the new holes so the plants don't suffer root damage.

Roots and Shoots Gold Award

Dingwall Academy will be presented with a Gold Award from the Roots and Shoots charity, founded by Jane Goodall.  DiGGers are proud to have been instrumental in us gaining the award.  Our very own Lewis and Charlotte will travel to London soon to spend a day at London Zoo along with two pupils from the "Waste Not Want Not" elective course.  They have been selected along with just a few groups to do a presentation about what we have achieved in the garden to improve our environment in school, grow our own food and encourage greater biodiversity.

We pledge to continue working to improve the garden and encourage others to enjoy it and learn about plants and how important they are to us!