ST. NICHOLAS SCHOOL GARDEN CLUB
2015/16 GARDEN PROJECT CALENDER/DIARY.
Summer Term A
April 12th 2016
Hedgehog Class
Green fingers garden club
The beginning of another term, the sun is shining , so we hope that there will be a great deal of fine weather this term for gardening, as it will be a busy time for sowing and planting.
Ms Morriss, had her garden chart ready with two groups of children who were able to come gardening today.
The first group was to be Daisy, Sophie, Jake and Eloise, quickly putting on their wellies, then gloves, we were ready to go digging.
Plot three in the veg area needed to be dug until it was fine, removing the large lumps, the team worked very hard, then three trenches were put in ready for the “seed potatoes”, this is one of the children’s favourite jobs. Daisy was hoping for some really big potatoes from this year’s harvest.
The soil was now raked level and markers put in, we need to watch out now for the green shoots, these will need to be protected from frosts. Eloise now needed hand to be pulled out from the plot, as she was sinking, great fun!
Whilst team one joined Mr Brewer for PE, the next group were now ready to do some gardening, Jess,Hannah,Ellie, Caitlin and Caleb, this group now all had different garden jobs to do. Caitlin, had to plant up the last of the lily bulbs, then she collected all of the pot ready plants from the eco house and lodge.
, making a holding bed for these.
Ellie and Jess, had the onion sets to plant out, the plot had to be raked level, before they could start to plant the onions in rows.
The girls decided to mix up the three types of onion, so that they would be more interesting when then began to grow, “great idea”.
We then had some visitors to the garden, Ladybird class finding out names of plants, then Dragonfly class doing RE, this was lovely to see.
Meanwhile Caleb and Hannah were digging up mounds to make a circle in which to put “cane wigwams”, ready to plant out sweet peas, runner beans, climbing beans and some peas later on.
Each wigwam top had to be tied up and old CD’s attached, to keep away the garden birds from the crops.
Now it was nearly time to pack away, some children from Butterfly class also came out to look around the garden, I think it must have been the lovely spring weather, it was a beautiful afternoon out in the learning garden.
Time to head back to the class room to put up the dojo points which had been awarded today.
Monday: - Pond dipping with Butterfly Class
A small group of children came out into the pond area to remove some of the weed and algae.
The children took out a large amount, and put it onto the path so that tiny creatures could find their way back into the water.
This group were very brave and handled all of the creatures, newts, dragonfly larva, beetles and bugs. Great fun!
Tuesday 19th April
Ladybird Class
Today was an exciting afternoon for the “green fingered” gardeners, because the “ROCKET seeds” had been delivered to the office, this meant that the children could now take part in the RHS trials.
Mrs Ewins, chose a group of children who had worked really well that morning, although lots and lots of hands went up due to the excitement of rocket seeds.
We all made our way into the learning lodge, the children were going to work in pairs, Harry, Liam , then Jayanna, Abbi, Hannah, River then Sasha and Freya.
The children all had a tray with 40 cells, in which to sow, the special rocket lettuce seed.
These trays had to be filled with fine compost, then using a “dibber” the tiny seed had to be counted out, only one seed per cell.
We were sent just two packets of seed by “Tim Peak”, we have a photo of him with our seeds in space.
The seed labelled “R “have been to space and the packet with” B “have been sent from the base, here at the RHS.
The tiny seeds now had been planted into the modules, and covered with compost, the next step was to label each seed cell, using handmade labels, this was tricky, but the team managed to complete this.
The group then soaked each tray, until heavy, and we took them into ladybird base, where the sun comes in through the large windows, this will encourage them to germinate, we hope!
This is a 35 day trial, where the children will water, watch and record, and fill in a special chart, and at the end of the trial the results will be sent back to the RHS/NASA, this is the first trial of its kind.
The second group, were now out in the learning lodge to plant up some of the veg seeds, the team planted runner beans, always their favourite, then dwarf beans, sweetcorn and marigolds, Henry had lots of tiny white beans to sow, when he watered these they kept popping out it was very funny.
Racheal and River, planted up a large flower pot with, tulips, daffodils, hyacinths and white bells, this we took over to the staffroom area so it would look nice for any visitors coming into the school.
The children had now watered all the trays of plants and seeds, next week we hope to sow some seed into the ground. This had been a very productive gardening afternoon, creating lots of new and different plants and ideas for our garden, well done today’s teams.
Thursday – Bird feeding with ladybird class
A large group of children came out into what was a very busy learning garden today.
The children collected up all of the feeders, and they were soon full and the birds seemed to be waiting for their treats. Our visitor to the school who came out to meet the children was soon involved in finding a good place to put up a feeder, which was really nice.
The group then has to do some “gardening science” this was using the hydroponics kit, seed growing in water only!
Brandon chose peas, Rachel and River, wanted flowers so it was orange marigolds, and Isabel and Finlay had runner beans.
These test tubes were placed into holders, filled with water, and the little seed creates were suspended in the top of each tube. The children labelled these then they were also taken over to the ladybird base, we will keep a close eye to see how they perform.
There are several water monitors, to look after all of these experiments.
I now went back into the learning garden to check on our “robin” nesting site, which is in a small plastic flower pot, on the ground (not a safe place), but I have given it a cover, and have taken some photo’s to show the children, I hope that our two little chicks, will survive and fledge, mum is doing a great job in feeding them at the moment.
Ladybird class watered and measured the rocket seeds, which now had grown 2cm in just three days.
These figures were then put onto the special rocket seed chart, and the plants were given some water.
Tuesday 26th April
Butterfly Class
As I arrived at the school today, it started to sleet, not great weather for garden club this week.
Mrs Bendell, had her list ready with the first five children already chosen, to go gardening.
Coats and wellies on, I think we could have done with hats and scarfs too.
Mrs Parker came out with Oli, she could not believe how cold it was, but never the less the children were very keen to do some digging, but seed sowing was their first job in the lodge out of the winter weather.
Oli planted runner beans, Liam planted dwarf beans, Chloe planted a new type of stripy morning glory, and Katie planted the children’s favourite pumpkins of course.
These were then put into our eco house, if the weather turns a bit more summery they might just germinate.
The team then collected rakes from the shed and used these tools to break down the large lumps of soil in the veg area, it was now sleeting again, but the children kept going.
The first group was now back in their warm classroom , and it was now sunny for the next team to do some gardening, Harry, Ben H,and Saffron, collected the pea frame, this was quickly put together, ready for the peas we had already sown , it will give the three types of pea somewhere to climb.
Tilley collected the plants from the eco house, which were, cauliflower, kale and peas, all of the group planted out the peas, these they decided to mix up to see which variety grew the best and quickest.
Plot number two now had to be raked over ready to sow the three varieties of carrot, this was quite tricky and the soil had to be made quite fine, and the children dug some thin trenches in which to sow the seed.
This was done very well by the group, labelled and the carrot seed covered.
Just time for the last of the green fingered gardeners to come out into the garden, these children had time to plant out the cauliflower and kale, the children were not so enthusiastic to plant these, as they were not their favourite, but they still took great care.
Jacob, Luke and Oakley found it difficult as the plants were tiny and they did not want to damage these. We then covered the plants with fleece, to stop slugs, snails and cold weather.
Ellie was very busy writing the labels for these so later on we will I hope be able to identify the plants.
Time to pack away the tools water the plants and seeds, then over to Ladybird base to record the measurements of our rocket seeds, now they are at 3cm tall, these seem to be grow as fast as a rocket!
Harry has just reminded me about the garden robin, today as the group were planting peas, the little male robin who is feeding it’s two young which are in a flower pot in a safe secret place, pulled up a worm or two right next to where Harry was planting his peas, it was near enough to touch, and quite tame, “Isn’t gods nature “wonderful.
Time to give out dojos this week for concentration and perseverance.
Friday Butterfly Class
A small group from the class were chosen by Mrs Porter to come out with me to water and measure the rocket seeds which are doing quite well.
The children then went into the learning garden to water the trays of seeds and also had a bit of time to go “pond dipping” which the children all loved.
Tuesday 3rd May
Dragonfly Class
The weather was great today for gardening, warm and sunny, Mr Brewer was getting ready to take the children out onto the field for PE, and so a team of six children had the chance to go gardening first with me.
After putting on wellies and gloves, the group collected tools from the shed, then Chloe, Alfie and Archie, picked up the pots of plants which were needed for the “slow worm” garden.
The team pulled out lots of the unwanted couch grass, then dug holes in which to plant, the perennial plants.
Daisies, hardy geraniums, evening primrose and blue iris, all found a new home in the wildlife patch, the children just need to sow some summer seed there now.
Charlie had the task of giving these plants a drink.
The second group of the afternoon were now ready for gardening, and could not wait to get started.
Harriot gathered up the tools ready to use. The group then took all of the weeds out of the raised bed ready to plant up.
We went over to the green house to collect the lily and gladioli plants, which we had over wintered.
The children worked carefully , tipping out the plants from there pots, and planting in straight lines, which was their choice, then we also had some new bulbs for this year to plant in between, these were well watered then we all stood back to take a look at a job very well done.
Time now to pot up the very last of the summer plants, our new “dahlias”, to go in with last years over wintered ones which we all hope are still alive in the green house.
The children then had time to water and measure the rocket seeds, before returning back to class, well done dragonfly class for fantastic work today.
Friday Dragonfly Class Rocket seed measuring
A group of seven children came into ladybird base to check, water and measure our seeds, all of the children took it in turns, and entered the results onto the chart, the children were so keen to do this, and worked really well, doing all of the measuring, Ella , Freya and Jayden had the garden camera to take some photos.
The group then had some time to go pond dipping, and algae removing, as it had become quite bad.
I put on the waders to pull out unwanted weed from the centre of our pond, I also had to look for any sunken boats, as Mrs Carswell had earlier took out the classes had made boats onto the pond for a sail, and one or two had sunk.
Mr Howell helped the children to fish the pond creatures out of their nets and put these safely back, and explain what the children had found it was great fun, time now to go back to class and collect their bags for home.
Tuesday 10th May
Hedgehog Class
Green fingers garden club, has to contend with fine rain, this afternoon, but this won’t dampen our spirits for gardening.
Ms Morriss, asked if she could bring the whole class out for pond dipping and wildlife photography, for the first session this afternoon, which was great.
The whole class spent time searching for pond creatures, and they found a lot, taking a great many pictures to!
We also looked for garden wildlife finding, at least four different type of snail, spiders, worms, ladybirds and five different types of slug, the ones that Rebecca found were huge.
Jodie, took a lovely picture of cherry blossom, and Sid found many snails.
Ms Morriss called all of the children into the lodge to talk about, their experiences and what they had found, and liked best out in the learning garden. The children thanked me as well which was just lovely.