24th March 2015

Today was nice sunny weather but there was the odd shower about. It was hot in the sunshine but cold in the shadow.

Some of our peas and beans are sprouted but many are not. Mrs Whyte told us that peas and sweet peas in particular, have thick coats. Some people soak them in water for a day before they plant them to make the coats a bit softer. We didn’t do that and so she has given them a good soaking now – even though they have been watered each day by the “water monitors”.  So that might get them going. The sunflowers Mrs Morrison took home last week to her greenhouse are doing well. We could transfer them to our cold frame once we build it. A cold frame is like a mini green house. Once seeds are germinated inside, it’s a bit much to put them straight outside, so we can shelter them in a cold frame for a wee while to “harden them up” and then plant them in the ground.

We chose another two “water monitors” for the week.

Our interesting fact this week is that if you squeeze mint leaves they taste like peppermint. Mint is a herb – that’s a plant that flavours food, is used as a perfume or as a medicine. Some herbs that we might grow this year in the courtyard are mint (very nice with lamb in mint sauce), oregano (used in pizzas and pasta dishes), rosemary (great with lamb as well or in a stew) and chives which are onion flavoured. These all smell good when you rub them just like mint does. Lavender is another herb. Some people use it to cook with, but mostly we use it as a perfume.

We had hoped that a big bag of earth might be delivered today to fill up the beds for our fruit and vegetables, but it has not arrived. So we decided to finish planting the hedge trees, to carry on cutting down some of the bushes at the far side of the car park and to do the edges of the grass at the front entrance and clear up the paths.

 

Mrs Thomson and Miss McKenzie helped us with the edges and the path clearing while Mrs Whyte helped us with the hedge. Mrs Morrison helped with some of the big roots that were growing into the grass at the front door. We also planted a poppy plant in a pot in the courtyard. It should last from year to year.

The front entrance is looking much tidier now and once the grass starts to grow as it gets warmer, it will look nice and green.

Next week will be our last before the Easter holidays. We are hoping to get some potatoes started – chitting is when we put the seed potatoes out in trays to let the “eyes” sprout before the potatoes get planted. We also need to dig a border for the sweet peas and sunflowers against the paling fence beside the beds. So still lots to do before the beds are ready and it’s warm enough to get going with our vegetables and flowers.

Nice clean path edges

Nice clean path edges

Grass edges cleared



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday 17th March

We all gathered to hear that some of the seeds we had planted were through – sunflower “Russian Giant”. To stop them getting too “leggy”, Mrs Morrison said she would take them home to her greenhouse until we had a cold frame made at school. None of the peas, beans or sweet peas had germinated yet. We chose two new “monitors” to make sure the seeds were kept moist this week.

We heard that the honeysuckle we had planted had been taken out of its planting hole. When we had a look it seemed that perhaps an animal had taken it out so we replanted it.

Then we heard an interesting fact. Worms eat earth and leaves and other rubbish in the soil and then pass it out the other end. This helps to loosen up the soil and makes plants grow better. Charles Darwin called them “nature’s ploughs”. If you see a patch of land with no worms it is not good for growing. We also heard that if a worm gets cut in two – perhaps by accident when we are digging – the bit with the head grows again instead of dying. Very clever! But if a worm gets squashed then that’s the end of it. So we are all going to take care of worms when we find them and not squash them because they are so good for the ground.

Andrew and Ross are on the Newspaper Club and they are going write something about what we do for the next edition.

Then we decided what to do today. Two of us with Mrs Morrison tidied up the raspberry canes. There were lots of canes that were last year’s and needed to be taken out. And the rest were too tall and needed to be cut back. So we learned how to use secateurs carefully (special gardening scissors!) and filled two black bags with the cuttings and other rubbish. The bed looks much neater now.

Most of the rest of us, along with Mrs Whyte, went to plant the hedge plants from the Woodland Trust. Mrs Whyte had dug 120 holes at the weekend for the plants – she says her knees will never be the same again! We managed to plant about half of the wee trees. There were canes to keep them from blowing over, and clear plastic tubes to keep the wind off and let the light through so they can get well rooted. We will have to plant the rest next Tuesday.

Two of us started to clear up overgrown grass and trees at the far side of the car park which we getting into a bit of a mess.

 

Honeysuckle replanted

Tree planters hard at work

Mrs Whyte and tree planters

Newly planted hedges with canes and tubes

Picking litter around the hedge

Raspberry canes

Some tree planters

Newly planted hedges with canes and tubing

 

 

Tuesday 10th March

Today we had dry weather – hooray!

First of all we checked that the seeds had been well watered and they had. Then we chose two new “monitors” to water them this week.  After that we decided to plant some bulbs in pots in the courtyard and to help Mrs Whyte do some more clearing up and cutting down at the front of the school.

In the courtyard we planted Agapanthus roots, ranunculus tubers, anemones and freesias. They all looked different. The Agapanthus were spidery. We didn’t know which way up to plant the ranunculus so we googled it. The “banana bunch” roots should be planted pointing downwards, so that’s what we did.

The anemones were flat so we just guessed which was up was which! And the freesias were a bit obvious with a flat bit at the bottom and a point at the top. There are pictures of all these attached.

All these bulbs will flower in the summer and will flower again next year again.

 

Outside there was more pruning and clearing up – including pruning the roses which were very jaggy! The beds are looking much better now at the main entrance.

 

And we planted a honeysuckle plant beside the fence where the beds are beside the “bottle” greenhouse. It should grow up the fence and produce beautiful flowers with a lovely smell.

Our useful fact this week was that pineapples don’t grow on trees – they grow on the ground, one pineapple to each plant.

The Woodland Trust has given the school 120 plants to grow a hedge. So next week we are going to plant them.

Pineapples growing in a field

Agapanthus root

Freesia Bulbs

Ranunculus Tubers

Tubs of bulbs in courtyard

 

 

 

Tuesday 24th February

At the start of the gardening club we found out that Poinsettias come from Mexico (last week’s question!). Then we discussed which jobs we were going to do.

We split into three groups.

One group washed the greenhouse in the courtyard. We discussed that we had to clean it up so that the light could get through to any plants we grew there. Before we started we had to clear out all the stuff that was there. We used brushes and sponges and soapy water. One problem was that the greenhouse covering has wee channels in it and the rain had got inside some of them and they were green. We could not clean this. There were also some holes so we need some new covering in parts. We found a hose to get rid of the soap and also a tap on the wall. But Mrs Morrison had to take the hose home to get it put all together. We used buckets of water to rinse off the soap and some of us got quite wet!

 

Another group washed the trays and plant pots we found in the greenhouse. We discussed that we needed to clean the up so there was no mould or insects left that might damage the new plants this year. We took them inside to the big sinks. Some were quite dirty and needed a bit of a scrub! And we found the occasional spider – that freaked out at least one of us! Once they were all clean we took them outside again and stored them in a new big plastic container ready to use.

 

The last group started to weed the front entrance of the school – we found worms and some of us did not like them much! We uncovered the daffodil bulbs that are growing in one bed. There is a lot more clearing up to do at the front.

Meeting 3 - Tuesday 3rd March

This morning there was snow on the ground! But when we met it was a bit drier.  We thought we should plant seeds today and also carry on with some outside clearing up at the front of the school.

 

So one group planted 21 pea seeds and 21 broad beans in trays. The compost was damp enough so we did not need to water them. Mrs Morrison and Mrs Whyte will find a sunny (south facing) window ledge for the trays to give them warmth and light to germinate. “Germinate” means turning from a seed into a plant with leaves.

We also planted 3 different kinds of sweet pea into toilet roll middles filled with compost. Mrs Whyte explained this was a good idea because the roots could grow straight and long inside the containers and when we put the plants into the ground outside, the toilet roll middles would just rot away and we would not disturb the roots (as well as the cardboard helping the soil).

We put labels with the names of the things we planted into the trays so that when they started to grow we would remember which was which! And of course we can see if any are better than the others so that next year we can choose the best. We should have put the date we planted the seeds onto the labels as well but we have got this blog to remind us.

The seeds were all different sizes, and the packets gave different times that we could expect them to appear – usually 2-3 weeks. They will need to be kept damp so this week Mirrin and Abbie will spray them regularly and make sure they are looked after.

The group outside cut down some bamboo which was spreading everywhere. Others took away the rotting old leaves of montbretia (we should remember to do that in the autumn next year before the leaves rot into mush!) and cut back some lemon balm. Some “perennial” plants – plants that keep growing every year – need to be cut back or “pruned” each year so they don’t grow over paths and get too big for where they grow.

Outside we also planted some primulas which are nice bright colours at the front entrance of the school.  If it is better weather next week we can maybe plant some bulbs that will flower in the summer, in the planters in the courtyard.

 

More clearing up needed

Primula newly planted

Bamboo cut down ready to grow again

Dead leaves from cleared Montbretia