Community Council presents us with £500!

This week has been a busy one.

 On Wednesday, Mr Nigel Greenwood came to see our garden.  He presented us with a cheque for £500 from the Dingwall Community Council.  We would like to thank them for their generosity.  We plan to buy more tools and a few special plants, so will enjoy deciding which ones to go for!  It will also enable us to repair the greenhouse so it stays together better next winter, and a couple of automatic vent openers so the heat will be better regulated in both greenhouses.

Talking of funding, last Friday our bake sale was a success too!  We raised £36.50 - thanks to the Parent Council for organising it.  They also have donated £300 from their own fund towards our new fruit garden project!!  As a result, we can now afford the seating and planters, so the "Woodblocx" team (see http://www.woodblocx.co.uk/ for more info) will be here on Friday to work with 2W2 to build them - watch this space for photos!

Last Friday, Connorhan spent period 4 planting up a barrel at the main entrance.  It was full of completely dead plants!!  It now has a good selection of perlargoniums, nasturtiums, lupins, ladies' mantle, lobelia - plenty of flowers for colour.

We even sneaked a couple of onions in there too!  We must remember to water it regularly to keep it healthy.

 On Thursday this week, workmen were out strimming, so the garden looks very tidy now!

 Danielle and Simona test out the siphon system to fill watering cans - the water butts are nice and full just now.

 Also, we have been given a selection of plants by the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh - Simona and Vicki helped to unload them from the car.

 A new member - Dale also joined us today.  He got stuck in right away - this is the "after" picture of the raised bed that he, Connorhan and Danielle weeded.  They had to water it first, to soften the soil!  It is now ready to plant potatoes (better late then never!)

 We now have a good selection of vegetables and perennials waiting to be planted out.

 Our leaf mold pile has rotten down well - we can now put two into one and cover it to keep it moist.  The wild Cow Parsley is looking particularly good this year too.

We also spotted a butterfly - it may be a small white, so need to cover our brassicas with netting so they don't get in!  Another bit of wildlife this week was a nuthatch - a small bird working it's way up and down a tree trunk looking for grubs under the bark.  Thankfully, no signs of the rabbit scared off last week!

Planting at Last, with a Special Visitor!

Glorious weather this week!  On Wednesday we weeded the long raised bed at the top of the garden, and on Thursday we actually managed to start planting!

Here you can see Connorhan and Rhiannon in action.

We also had a visitor today - Mr Mark Paterson, Curator of the Cruickshank Botanic Garden, Aberdeen University.  He got stuck in with helping us weed and was very impressed with our garden here at the Academy.  He was interested to hear about our projects and very keen to help in future with developing courses so that more pupils can gain experience and qualifications in Horticulture and Plant Science - anything and everything to do with plants!  He also kindly invited us to visit the Botanic Gardens in future.

Tomorrow, we are due to help the Parent Council with a bake sale at break time, so watch this space!  With a bit of luck, we'll raise some more money for our new fruit garden.

Summer on its way.

Glad to be back on the blog after a prolonged absence due to illness.  The DiGGers met today to get cracking now the weather is warmer and brighter.  We started weeding the wild flower border to prepare for re-sowing fresh seed.

 The garden is looking pretty good considering it has been neglected for several weeks!

 Our fruit bushes have really grown...

 ...and happily, all our fruit trees are still alive and in blossom despite not being planted into their upright positions yet!

 The rhubarb has gone mad - we need to cut off the flower stalks in order to let the edible stalks mature.

The strawberries have re-emerged of their own accord too.
We have plenty of weeding to do and need to get our seed potatoes in the ground as soon as possible!
So, now we can really get going with seed sowing too - runner beans, peas, lettuce etc - watch this space for more next week!
Also, next Friday, the Parent Council have arranged another fundraising event for us - so we'll help them with a bakesale at break time - bring some money along and enjoy a tasty cake!

Pruning and Tidying

Spring has still been "on hold" this week, with cold windy weather.

Yet again, the wind blew out some panels from the greenhouse!  They hadn't gone far, so we put them back and replaced the canes to hold them in place.

On Wednesday, we took possession of some chairs - they are "returning home" as they used to be in the old school!  Alistair (Lewis's granddad) managed to get hold of them for us.  So now we have plenty of seating.

On Thursday, Mr Macfarlane worked really hard - digging in two more raised beds that he has donated.  These will be used by classes for planting, so now we can have groups of four pupils instead of five looking after a pair of raised beds.

Meanwhile, Danielle started pruning the Buddleja bush - this is before...

...and this is after (admittedly with a little help from the Friday class too!).  We need to chop up the branches next week to put into the compost.

On Friday, to mark "National Gardening Week" Miss Swallow called into St. Clements School to drop in a couple of plants for their garden: rhubarb and comfrey.  They have been taken by dividing our garden plants.  They were very grateful and also keen to enter this year's primary school competition for the Summer Garden Party.  All primary schools have been given two "Cassablanca" First Early seed potatoes this week.  The winner of the Lewis MacKenzie Trophy will be the one that produces the most potatoes by the date of the garden party!

Meanwhile, our own Rhubarb plants are coming on nicely - they have grown a lot over the Easter Holidays.

Happy Easter Everyone

Today we broke up for the holidays.  It has been another busy week with cold but clear sunny weather.

 On Wednesday we raffled off the remaining Easter Eggs and raised another £50 bringing our total raised by the tombola up to £225.

Thanks again to the Parent Council for organising it and to everyone who bought tickets.

 Today, two ex-pupils returned from University: Charlie and Alex.  They got roped into setting up a string-line as a guide ready for DiGGers to start turning turf in the new garden ready for hedge plants next term.  Great to see you guys - and to hear about your Computing Courses at Uni!

Later in the day, Miss Swallow and two adult volunteers started to mark out holes to make for posts. 

 After lunch, Mr Macfarlane took over and continued to deepen the holes before bashing in tall wooden posts.

It was hard going as the ground is very stony.

Meanwhile, DiGGers came out and dug a good sized trench - the top turf was put upside down in the bottom so it can rot away.  The soil was broken up and put back in the hole, so it is now ready for hedge plants to go in next term.  Danielle managed to stay on after lunch and continue the good work.

As you can see, it was lovely and sunny.  

Whilst we were busy with all this, S6 pupils were finishing the week on a high note.  They had set up a cycle trainer in the school foyer and taken turns all week to keep it turning - aiming to cycle the equivalent mileage from Dingwall Academy to London - the Teenage Cancer Trust headquarters, the charity they were raising money for.  Some staff took turns too (Miss S included).  Every year, the school raises money during "Teenage Cancer Trust" week and now after such a massive effort this week (many activities going on) we have become the school to raise the most money for them across the whole of the UK!  Over £10,000!  Find out a little more here.

So, we now have two weeks holiday and look forward to spring weather when we return.  We have lots of planting, pruning and seed sowing to do in the garden, and the new garden to build as well, so see you then!  It will also be "National Gardening Week" so parents and carers are invited to come in for a tour of the garden and to get involved for an afternoon. 

 In the meantime Happy Easter and Happy Holidays to everyone.

Easter Egg Tombola a great success!

On Friday this week, DiGGers helped out with an "Easter Egg Tombola" that the Parent Council had organised for us.  

A fabulous range of Easter Eggs had been donated by parents and displayed in the foyer with a raffle tickets on each one.  Pupils paid 50 pence a go and if the ticket they drew out of the bucket ended in a zero they won an egg.

Amazingly, in one lunchtime, it raised £175!!  This money will go towards building seating and planters in the new garden that DiGGers and tutor group 1W2 will be creating.  Along with our seed potato sales, this means we now have £235 of the £600 we aim to raise.

Mrs Cormack was one of the lucky winners!
We would like to thank the Parent Committee for organising this event, all the parents who donated eggs and Lynne, Alison and Heather who helped us on the day.  We also have some eggs left, so hope to raffle them off next week as well!

Earlier in the week, despite the cold, we made some pots out of newspaper ready to start planting when the spring finally arrives.  Connorhan and Miss Swallow also dug a flat area for a new compost bin to be started off as our others are now full.

Danielle and Rhiannon help carry the spare seed potatoes up to the shed for storing.  

We also tidied the shed a little - a constant job!

Parents night a great success!

On Thursday night this week, some DiGGers members (Connorhan, Danielle, Rhiannon and Simona) volunteered to stay in school and sell seed potatoes to parents and staff. 

We set up tables in the main corridor and lots of people were very interested.

The girls are putting pre-ordered potatoes together for staff. 

They were kept pretty busy!

                                         We'd like to thank everyone who bought potatoes!

It was a great success - we raised £60 and 10p.  This money is the beginning of a fund for a whole new garden that we are planning to create.  It will have fruit trees, hedge plants, seating and a path in it.

Earlier in the week, we "heeled in" the hedge plants, as they arrived before we are ready to plant into the new area.  Above you can see us digging a trench to put them in...

...and here you can see some of the covered over with soil.  This will keep them alive until we are ready to transplant them.

Simona and Ashton - both new DiGGers members.