Sharing our Forest School experience and Potting on Competition Sunflowers

This week, we really had to pot on the competition sunflowers - you can see how big they have grown!

They were all needing more space to grow so we potted them up into larger pots where they will stay for the rest of the competition.

It was a special week too because our Forest School Group who are working to achieve their John Muir Award welcomed Tarradale Primary School's Eco-Group children to see a slide show and accompany them to Evanton Woods on Wednesday morning.  Several DiGGers are members of the Forest School group - can you spot Danielle and Connorhan in the picture?

 On Tuesday afternoon - Danielle helped cook Potato and Leek soup (home grown potatoes of course) for the whole group - 26 people!

 Simon talked about the Evanton Woods project when we arrived...

 ...then we carried all the kit down to an area near the river.

 I think Danielle has gained a "friend for life!"

 Simon split the group into three teams (our Forest School group were the team leaders) and set them their first challenge - to collect the correct sized wood to build a fire.

 The pieces were a certain thickness for each group (matchstick - pencil - thumb width) and the length of the palm of your hand.

It must be DRY which means collecting it from OFF the ground.

Cutting the wood to size with loppers (thinner pieces snap easily by hand if dry enough)

 Simon sorts the wood into size-piles

We then had a demonstration of fire-lighting.  Tarradale Primary school's teacher was given the challenge: "Can you light the fire with the flint and steel?"  Click the link below to see a video clip - did she do it?  ("No pressure Mrs Boardman!")

Simon and Danielle took charge of the fire (and soup) whilst the teams were set a shelter building challenge: "Build a shelter (for one) with no more than 5 pieces of string and incorporating triangles and rectangles in your design.  It will be tested by throwing water over the structure whilst one person is inside!!"

 Some groups used the saw horse (in the background of the picture above) to cut larger wood to length.  At midday, we were all called to have soup, baguette and cake (thanks Mrs Lynch!)

Alexander (left) was this group's team leader.  He looked after them really well.

 We all sat round the fire to eat.  The "Fire Circle Rule" is that no-one must walk across inside the log circle - you must step over the log and walk round the outside!

There was enough soup to have seconds!

 Next it was time to judge the shelters...

...luckily there was not enough time to test them with water!!! 

Some children wanted to sleep the night in their shelter!  It was time to head back to school however.  Everyone had a wonderful time and Tarradale Primary hopes to arrange regular visits to the woods in future.

Whilst all this was going on, there was a real sense of teamwork up at the cabin area - with the extension and cladding being prepared.

 Meanwhile, back in the garden lots of crops are coming on well in the greenhouses.  These are runner beans...

 ...pumpkins and squashes...

 radish and salad...

 geraniums for colour...

 ...peas...

 ...wild flowers and hellebores...

 ...more peas...

 ...more pumpkins (hope all Dingwall Academy's primary schools are doing well with their competition pumpkins?  Let us know by leaving a comment!)...

 ...and cabbages!

 It's all looking very productive...

and outside we have lots of fox-gloves and poppies to plant out.  These will attract the insects as well as looking lovely and colourful.

A new technique and a new word!

This week there was lots more action in the garden.  On Wednesday Danielle gave a second coat of paint to our plant signs so they are now ready for the plant names to be painted on.

On Thursday, Connorhan, Dale, Danielle and Sara learned a new technique: Pricking out.  This is where you gently remove seedlings from the seed tray where they germinated and pot them up into individual pots.

The new word they learned is "Hypercotyl"  This is the part of the stem that stretches from the top of the roots to the seed leaves - the first leaves the plant produces after germination.  You can plant the seedling so the hypercotyl is under the soil.  This gives it stability in the pot and it will grow new roots as well.

Also a volunteer, Chris came to work in the garden to help clear trees from the top area of the garden where we plan to create a fruit-growing area.  He also started to clear a platform ready for two more sheds to be made hopefully next week as well as tidying the OJ greenhouse.  Connorhan immediately noticed how tidy it was - "Are you saying we usually keep an untidy greenhouse?!"

He enjoyed the time there, doing a little weeding too and raking the path - thanks for all the hard work Chris!

On Thursday too, 2W2 tutor group planted some more hedge plants in the new fruit garden outside the canteen - this is all the equipment ready for them to use.  Mrs Mackie's ID class also started planting potatoes out in their raised beds.

Sowing seeds, potting on and painting plant signs

On Wednesday, we started sowing lots of seeds.  Mostly large ones - peas and runner beans.

 The greenhouse is looking quite productive just now.

Meanwhile, Vicki, Rhiannon and Danielle started painting strips of wood.  We are going to make them into plant signs and varnish them so they last a long time.

 On Thursday, Sara and Rhiannon potted on our pumpkin plants as they were out-growing their first pots.

Danielle was busy putting seeds into our home-made paper pots.

During Periods 1 and 2 on Thursday, Sara and Danielle 

took the competition sunflowers round classes for people to guess which they thought would grow the tallest.  £26.40 was added to our "Sense Scotland" fund raised so far so thank you to everyone who made a guess!

 Also last Friday, Connorhan had a "Secateurs servicing" lesson.  We dismantled his secateurs, cleaned them, sharpened the blade with a file, oiled the parts and put them back together - and no, we didn't have any bits left over at the end!

You can see our seed potatoes "chitting" on the table (that means sitting in the frost-free light so they can start growing shoots) - we really need to plant the earlies out soon!

Seed Sowing and Tree Planting

On Wednesday this week, lots of gardening happened!  The Forest School group helped to plant two more fruit trees in the orchard - a plum and an apple.

Kyle and Connorhan cut the turf, then placed it upside down in the bottom of the hole to rot away and feed the tree.

The hole was very rough subsoil and gravel - which needed breaking up a little!

Tipping the topsoil back round the tree.

We then topped if off with fresh compost, watered it in and mulched with well rotted bark.

So now our orchard has five fruit trees.

We also put tree protectors any hedge plants that needed them and tidied up all the canes.  We then sowed wild flower seeds at the school gate to welcome people in the summer months and attract insects to our orchard.

At lunch time, DiGGers sowed runner beans into pots and watered them in.  We tidied the green house to make room for them on the shelves.

There was also a delivery of more timber ready to make the next pair of storage sheds - hopefully next week!

On Thursday, Danielle and Sara planted a tree (kindly donated by Kath - a member of the RBGE Horticulture class so thank you to her!) into our hedge.

It was very warm weather - luckily the soil was not too dry.

We gave it a good watering to settle in.

Meanwhile, the garden is looking very spring-like with colourful tulips and dandelions in the grass.