A Quiet Week

 This week, the wintry weather continued.  On Wednesday, we met indoors to talk about the upcoming potato day.  We started to count seeds into a jar for a competition on the seed swap table.  On Thursday, we pulled last week's fat ball out of the tub and put it on the bird table.

We also needed to replace 3 panels again in the greenhouse.  When the weather is warmer and drier, we will put sealant round each pane to help keep it secure.  In the meantime, we'll just keep our fingers crossed that we don't have such severe winds again - as this time, there were 80 mph gusts!

Keeping the Birds Fed

On Wednesday, we had a visitor - Alistair MacKenzie (Lewis's granddad).  He had a good look around to see how the garden was looking whilst Lewis was in a meeting about a school trip to Malysia that he's been fund-raising to go onto for ages!  Believe it or not, Lewis has now left school, so has become our first "Old DiGGer!"  Meanwhile, we melted some lard and added bird seed and oats into it before pouring it into an old yoghurt pot.

If you thread the string through a circle of cardboard which is then placed in the bottom of the pot, then the pot remains in tact to prevent leaks!  It can then be re-used.  We just held the pot in a bowl of hot water for a couple of seconds on Thursday once it had set hard and the bird-cake slipped out easily...

 ...ready to hang out for the birds.  We then made another to put out next week.  We also filled the bird feeder with nuts and retrieved a seed-feeder from the undergrowth at the bottom of the hill by the fence.  We couldn't find the base of it, so will have to try and fashion something to fix it!

After that, we just had time to pull out a couple of the walking stick cabbages and cut off the root ball.  We will dry the stalks and see if they are any good for walking sticks in future!

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.