Six members met today along with Mrs Thomson, Mrs Whyte, Mrs
Morrison and Mrs Fraser our new helper.
We had a wee chat about all the things that have grown while
we have been on holiday and decided there were some things we should harvest
today and share between ourselves. So we armed ourselves with big forks for the
potatoes (in case there were some where the “shaws” (the leafy green parts of
the potatoes) had been taken away. We wondered why anyone could be so mean as
to take the shaws or dig up the potatoes we had grown and decided they must
never have grown anything themselves. We also took trowels in case we had time
to plant cabbages and lettuces.
We were quite excited to see the carrots in the courtyard –
we could just see the tops of some of them above the earth and the foliage
looked very good. But they are still too small to dig up so we need to wait a
few more weeks to see how big they will grow.
The first thing we did was look at the roses at the main
entrance. Mrs Morrison explained we needed to keep taking off the dead heads of
the flowers so the plant would put all its energy into new flowers and not into
the seeds in the pods behind the dead flowers. The Jubilee Rose has lovely big
flowers and a sweet perfume.
Then we tackled the potatoes. Triumph! Lots of them and we
filled half a trug at least. We will divide these up to take home tomorrow once
we have some plastic bags. We learned that you have to take out even the
tiniest potato otherwise they will grow next year and mess up the bed. We only
put the fork through a couple of potatoes and these need eaten soon or they
will rot and affect the others.
Then we started on the raspberries. The canes have grown
enormous. Mrs Whyte thinks they may have had too much nitrogen fertiliser which
encourages leaf and shoot growth rather than the fruit. And of course there are
raspberry plants springing up all over the place because they spread by sending
out roots and then sending shoots up from the roots. We need to think about
this bed next year and what to do with it.
However the fruit was delicious and sweet and the
strawberries that were left were excellent as well. A lot of the strawberries
were past because they had ripened when the school was on holiday.
We picked any peas and beans that were ripe as well. And
then we had a look at the turnip. Everyone got one of these. There are still
some too small to harvest so we can get at least another one each later on.
We each got a wee carrot when we thinned them out again. The
carrot plants need to be a bit apart so they can swell up to a decent size. If
they are too close together they will stay small. Let’s hope the carrot root
fly don’t get at them!
Some of us picked sweet peas. What a lovely perfume. Some
went to Mrs Murray and Mrs McPherson and some were taken home. There will be
plenty more flowers so long as we keep taking off the dead heads. They will
last till the frost comes of a very strong wind blows them down.
We discussed the sunflower seeds. We agreed to collect some
when the petals fall off and leave some so the birds can have some to eat.
We got a lovely present of a cold frame from Mr Fraser and
we will plant some micro salad leaves next week and keep the in the cold frame.
Altogether a very satisfying day seeing the produce that we
grew ourselves from seed.
Sam didn’t have an interesting fact for us so he is going
away to find out about the origin of potatoes for us for next week.
