The enormous pumpkin

The enormous pumpkin was finally cut open today. Kim and a group of year six made delicious soup and an incredible pumpkin cake (everyone said so). The local parishioners and some parents came to have a taste. Thanks Kim.

Tidy up time!

Year 5 did a fantastic job of clearing a corner of the garden. They uprooted weeds and nettles before laying mypex to cover the ground.

Orchard Planting Day

Today London Orchard Project came and helped us plant seven fruit trees in the garden. We learnt how and why we should  dig a square hole. We dipped the roots in mycorrhizal funghi to help the tree grow well. Mulch mats will help protect the tree from being attacked by too many weeds. Wood chip will help feed the tree as it grows. We learnt so much. Thankyou London Orchard Project.

A night garden

Garden club ends in darkness at 4.00. We weeded around the beds and trees today. The sprouts are growing quietly and we have leeks to harvest. We are going to be selling the pumpkin at the Christmas fayre.

Dedicated Weeders

Every garden needs people who do a job thoroughly. These two year six pupils are great at the job. As this is the month of thankfulness they deserve a mention.

Autumn cleaning

Two dedicated workers clean up the greenhouse ready for next seasons planting. They did a great job and even recycled an old cutlery holder to make a tool holder.

Composting Continues

We are determined to organise our compost so we can improve our soil. A group of year six continue to build the sections with the help of Mr Ballard.

Roasted Pumpkin

The different squash and pumpkins were chopped and roasted for tasting by class 6. There were some surprises particularly the taste of 'carnival' pumpkins which everyone thought was amazing.

Building the Compost Heap

Year 6 followed instructions telling them how to build a structure for the compost. They then forked the compost into the structure. Hard work but rewarding.

Harvest time!

Garden club harvested all the pumpkins and squash ready for the RHS  show in Westminster next week . We just received our badges with exhibitor written on, so exciting.

Learning to take cuttings

Year 6 had their first lesson in taking cuttings from a plant to grow another plant.

Happy Birthday RHS

On the 19th of September the RHS celebrated their 5th birthday working with schools. Our year six made a delicious apple and cinnamon cake with apples from our garden.

Cauliflower ?

A secret cauliflower has appeared, I thought they were all cabbages.

Kidd's Orange Red

Year 6 will be the lucky pupils to discover and harvest our secret apples.

Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere.

What a joy to return to the garden today and find the pumpkins, peppers and corn all thriving.
I can't wait for the children to come back and see them. I also need to thank the people who have taken care of this magical garden.

Summer Harvest

There was great excitement today as everyone harvested the vegetables they had been growing. There were beetroots,potatoes, radishes and cabbage.

Secret Opening

The secret garden was officially opened for learning today by Mr Colin Crosbie curator of RHS Wisley and David Domoney from 'Love your garden'. Two Christ Church pupils opened the event by speaking about the importance of the garden for their learning.

Evening Standard

The Evening Standard came to take pictures of the garden. It poured with rain but everyone stayed cheerful. The garden is so green it takes your breath away.

Tomatoes reach for the sky

Today the tomatoes reached the roof of the greenhouse. Jim said they would , we are amazed.

Clearing and sorting

A fantastic group just cleared and sorted rubble, rubbish and weeds. Bugitis was  rife in the garden.

The pepper has its first flowers.

This morning we discovered two flowers have opened on the pepper plant. The garden opening is Friday 13th so we have a lot of work to do before then.

Garden Tales

There was a lot of excitement today as our book 'Garden Tales' has arrived. The stories written by year six and year three children are fantastic. The stories were inspired by the secret garden and the author Margaret Bateson-Hill.

Bliss returns

Jim returned today and made us all very happy. He told the Y4 boys the tomatoes were the best he had seen in any school:) The group talked to him about the ladybird larvae and Jim explained that the one on the bamboo cane was going to become a ladybird by becoming a pupa and then a ladybird.We have to feed the tomatoes now they have flowers so the fruit will grow. We will have a lot of tomatoes and the residents of Falcon Estate will be helping harvest them this summer.Year 5 have done a fine job rescuing the beans, garden club have also added to the bean collection by planting them straight in the ground. 

             The turnips have surprised everyone and there is a lot of interest in how big they will grow. A lot of people know the story of the enormous turnip. We will have to wait and see. Some of the cabbages are under cover and are huge some of them are not under cover and are tiny. The enviromesh is like the 'mithril' of the garden world.                                                        

Peas Please

Our peas are looking good. The structure built by Jermaine and Jerome in Class 4 has produced healthy peas with lots of flowers. Thankyou boys.

Today we tried to spread out the radishes. The squirrels seem to like pulling them out so we decided to put them back in but not in a row.

Apparently we should thin out the carrots too.
This will help the other carrots grow  but the smaller ones we can eat.

Our potatoes have flowered which we were not expecting so that was a surprise.

A visitor inspires

 Today we had a visitor in the garden who listened to what the children liked about gardening. It was great to hear what they loved about being outside and to watch how focused they were.

Children got on with a variety of jobs:
Earthing up potatoes
Making the structure for the beans to climb up
Weeding the beds
Watering the trees

The sun was shining it was blissful.

Rain and Resilience

This is the first view from the back of the garden. Through the pouring rain the Tooting Prince's Trust young people dragged, carried, pulled and heaved until all the rubble, roots and rubbish was gone.

I cannot thank them enough for what they have done the children will be amazed on Monday.
We can now see the space that the London Orchard Project will be able to work with.
The garden looks enormous now.

The space looks big enough for a shed and a shelter. The children would like a covered area to shelter from the rain but still be able to work.