Good work means good plants

We work very well for the school. But we also have fun,we are hoping to win another award beacause we look after everything very well. 

Doing the garden is hard work

All of the classes have work so hard in the garden to make it a better place even though all of the plants are gone does not  mean our spirit is gone for our gardening.We will just keep and gardening un tillwe stop because that is the gardening spirit! Jp

 

Working in the garden

Pupils from Year 6 have been working very hard to make the garden a better place. It has been very exhausting doing this but we haven't given up. We have leaf mulch from last year, worm castings from our wormy, we also have compost made from decomposed fruit peelings and shredded up paper from our school. This is the first blog post written by children from our school. We have now taken over!

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Compost Heaven

Today we removed the compost from the container in the school garden. It was amazing to see the rich soil that has been produced from our fruit skins, shredded paper, and dead plants.

Recording the weight

Weighing all the squash and pumpkins took a few days. After it was done a list was made of what will be cooked and how much will be sold. There have been several parents asking about them.

Elephant Garlic

Training Commences

Class 6 are working hard to ensure the last of our tomatoes ripen. Five lucky pupils had a pruning lesson and can now do summer pruning.

Lovely lettuce

The holiday sun has made everything grow really well.We have taken the opportunity to plant more vegetables; carrots, celeriac and leeks. The lettuce have really grown well.

The garden is surprising

We had a busy afternoon in the garden with some regulars but some new Gardeners visited. We planted seeds, weeded, cleared the tomato plants to reveal a store of hidden treasure. We swapped recipes for courgettes including courgette pancakes. We have enough for half a cookery book already.

Secret Gardeners take over the garden

Today we had our first summer gardening session. In two hours weeds were cleared from around trees, the compost bins were redesigned, beetroot and beans were planted for the autumn. We discussed recipes and chose produce to test them out. Looking forward to the next one.

Harvest time

There is so much to harvest in the garden we didn't know where to start. One team picked spinach another garlic others courgettes and mange tout. We are selling some of it today.

Sustainable edible garden 2013 winner

We were announced the winners of the sustainable edible garden 2013. We have one more competition entry to go. We are also being visited by the RHS magazine to be featured as a successful school garden.

Harvesting and Cooking

Today we carefully cut the outer leaves from the spinach plants. We did this to make sure the plants would continue to grow. Next we cut a handful of mint and headed back to school.
The spinach tarts were a huge success and delicious. The chocolate mint mousse is very appealing. We have some excellent cooks in year 5 including pastry chefs.

Super Spinach

Today we worked around the garden in groups improving the look of the garden. Everyone checked on the spinach which we will be cooking next week.

Business Success

Year Five ran their first fruit and vegetable stall today parents and friends were able to buy fresh produce to take home and enjoy. Everyone commented how good Year Five were at persuading people to buy.

Mathematics from the garden

Year five put their maths skills to good use setting up their fruit and vegetable stall.

History in the garden

Year one and two really enjoyed their visit to the garden museum. The explored many garden artifacts some very old. They made a dvd all about it.

Caring for our cabin

Yesterday year six were learning about the importance of looking after wood.

Garlic Spray

We are using some of our garlic to make a spray to use against aphids as well as using nettle spray to help them recover from an aphid attack.

Worms Thrive

The worms are doing very well and we have added our third tray. The liquid that comes out from the bottom is diluted and used as plant food.

White Rocket

Wild flowers attract insects to our garden we have discovered white rocket growing around the garden which is edible.

Leaf Mulch

Today the Y5 children sorted all the leaves so they are all in the same place. They will be used in the Autumn to dig into the soil and put around the trees so our soil will be nutritious.

Governor in the garden

Today class six were joined by one of our governors as they planted out the beans,spinach and beetroot.

Weed Free

Keeping the beds weed free is second nature to our experienced gardeners. The onion beds provide welcome relief from the classroom.

The log cabin has arrived

Thankyou to all the parents and pupils who cleared the ground for the log cabin. The cabin will provide us with the much needed learning space for when it is cold or raining outside.

Blossom

Blossom is a wonderful sign of hope after a long cold winter. This year our espaliers are 5 years old and will produce more fruit. We need our rota for watering so we make sure they get all they need.

A very busy afternoon

We repotted kale, tomatoes and peppers. The beans were planted into the beds and all the other beds were dug over or planted with carrot seed. Seeds were planted including beetroot, celeriac and peas.

Recycled beans

The beans that we took from last years crop have grown and are ready for planting out.

Minnesota Visit

  

We had some great visitors who were as enthusiastic about the garden as we are. They came form Minnesota in the USA. We all worked with Jim Bliss RHS to plant some tomatoes for our greenhouse.

We had chance to share our knowledge with each other and swap tips for growing.
We have also been given a new apple tree to plant a special variety that grows in Minnesota.

Big Dig

Thankyou to everyone who came and made the big dig a success. We cleared the area for our log cabin to be built on. We were very wet, very muddy, very tires but incredibly proud of what we achieved together.

Potatoes

Today garden club planted our early potato crop. We are hoping there Will not be any frost or snow.

The promise of Spring

Year 6 worked hard today. They turned over green manure, dug the compost, tidied the greenhouse area and weeded round the trees.

The worms have arrived

Today garden club assembled the wormery and put the worms in their new home. Class three will be looking after them now so they will be our worm experts.

Potting our seedlings

At garden club on Thursday we took the seedlings from the propagator and transferred them to pots. A tricky job but everyone managed.

Caring for our trees

On Wednesday a group of year six went out to try and finish some jobs. Two children put some mypex down and then bark chips. My star of the day was Ms Maye who stuck with the job and finished it.