New Fruit Trees and some New Faces in the Garden

 We had some new faces in the garden this week.  First years in 1W2 Tutor Group.  We have designed a new garden near the school building, but are not quite ready to start building it yet.  We applied for free fruit trees from the "Grounds for Learning" charity and they arrived this week - along with harsh frosty weather!

 On Tuesday, they weeded the ground...

 ...the trees arrived on Wednesday...

 ...two plum trees and six apple trees to create an orchard...

...so on Thursday, we "heeled them in" which means we dug a trench and covered the roots with soil to protect them from drying out or getting frosted until we are ready to plant them properly.

 We thought a layer of straw would help to keep them warm too!

Meanwhile, the DiGGers were busy cutting back the wild flowers and weeding the ground in readiness for re-sowing in Spring.  Danielle also collected some seed that was still in the pods and Callum cut back the willow seat some more.  We will keep the cuttings either to re-plant as trees or use to weave mini raised beds.

Yet more wind! Cutting back Cabbages

 Spot the compost bin!  Again this week, high winds have taken their toll on our garden.  After collecting various items strewn around (including more panels from the OJ Greenhouse), we realised that the window panel had broken.  It's definitely a week spot - the aluminium frame has sheered off in one corner so we'll have to see if we can fix it.

Our temporary fix of canes helped some panes to stay in place - just!

 On Thursday, we made a start cutting back the walking stick cabbages.  We hope to dry the larger stems to see if they will actually make walking sticks!

Our next job will be weeding, to prepare for this year's planting.  It seems a slow process this winter as the ground has been frozen for most of the time since the New Year!  In fact, we still have hedge plants to get into the ground as well - all good fun!

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.