ST. NICHOLAS SCHOOL GARDEN CLUB
2015/16 GARDEN PROJECT CALENDER/DIARY.
Autumn Term Two
November 3rd 2015
Dragonfly Class
Green fingers garden club and the beginning of another term, the weather today is wet and mild so, the children are going to be working on dragonfly decking area, garden plot.
Ms Palmer chose some reception and year one children, some of which had not be gardening before, we ticked off their names on the list, put on the gardening gloves and we were ready to get started.
I had put compost, a bucket of bark, trowels, and plants already on to the deck area, the first job was to do a bit of pruning to the shrubs as they were becoming quite large.
The group collected up all of the cuttings and put them into a plastic trug, when this was finished it looked much better and the children had more room to do some planting.
The boys put their trowels to good use and began putting a mixture of compost and bark into the small garden plot, great fun!
The girls carefully half-filled a yellow hanging basket with compost, then carefully a mixture of daffodil bulbs were put in.
Pansies and daises were then put in, the girls gave it a water, the final touch was to put together a “solar dragonfly”, which we popped into the basket and hung it onto the hook it looked great.
The boys had now emptied all of the soil mixture, and were ready to plant out some winter colour, so pansies and pinks were put around the edge of the garden plot a good job done, it was now time to go back in for storey time.
Three more children wanted to come out as they also had not done any gardening, so once their gloves were on, we then sorted out some large flowerpots and containers.
The children put stones into the bottom for drainage, then compost, and I explained to the children how to plant spring bulbs, and they put in daffodils and crocus, the last few pansies were put on top, then Tyler and Oli, found some blue pottery balls to put in, this made the pots look nice.
Miss Kay came out to remind us that it was five minutes to home time , so the boys finished by building a bridge using a small plank of wood and some flowerpots, I look forward to seeing what other uses the children will find for these things.
Freya, Chloe, Tyler, Oli and Eva- Ray worked well today.
Friday Bird feeding with Dragonfly Class
The children could not wait to come out into the learning garden, to feed our garden birds today,
Children were chose who had not had the chance to come out in the garden on Tuesday.
I collected the seed and feeders from the shed and the team sorted out which type of seed went into each hanging feeder, this is always a bit of a challenge, especially when the loose mixed seed gets put into the nut feeder, and we have to scoop it up from the table.
All containers now full the children always get to choose where to hang the feeders for the bird’s , as well as our visiting squirrel, well done team.
Tuesday 10th November
Hedgehog Class
Today’s green fingered garden club has to be juggled with Mr Brewer’s PE group as well, so we start gardening earlier to fit it all in.
Mrs Marshall, chose a group of keen gardeners to come out into the garden, so the children put on their wellies and thick garden gloves , we then all set off over to the rockery.
The first job was to install the wooden obelisk, this was very kindly made for us by Mr Ken Jeanes, (Janes husband), Townsend fencing, had given me the wood, and Ken made the wooden structure for our honeysuckle, this we hope will be in keeping with the nice wooden library.
The team worked out how to put it in position, Jody and Izzy were great at this, we all stood back to have a look , now we all hope that this strong wind does not blow it over.
On to the next task, for this group, Caleb and Alex collected the wheel barrow and shovels, the children then dug up as much gravel from the pile in the bank as they could , hard work, but fun!
We took this back to the learning garden path to spread over the surface, and make it drier to walk on especially in the winter.
The team collected two more loads, then using their rakes spread it level, this was a great job and we had used recycled material left over from the new library path, well done to my first garden group, now it was their turn for PE.
Ellie, Tasmin, and Jess were the first three children with their wellies on, then followed by the rest.
We then set off over to the gravel heap once again, we need just two more loads, it was nice to see that the girls were just as keen to get digging as the boys, we just managed to push the very full wheel barrow up the hill back to the garden, where the team emptied it out onto the path.
The weather today had become very dull and the light was beginning to fade, so we then decided to finish pruning the fruit area, most of the apple trees I had done at the weekend as they had become quite tall, but the smaller ones the children could reach to prune.
All fruit trees and bushes are best pruned in the autumn, as the sap has now finished rising, and the plants will now become dormant over winter.
The team did a fantastic job of this, as most of them had remembered how to do this from the previous years well done.
Just time to do some pond dipping, it is so great to see how much all the children love our school pond and want to look after it.
Well done teams PE and gardening working well together, some dojos were awarded today, one hard working gardener had two.
Friday, Hedgehog class came out into the garden to top up the bird feeders with seed.
The children also checked on the rockery to make sure it was ok after the strong winds, we saw butterfly class just finishing their sponsored walk around the field.
At the weekend I came up to prune the laviteria plants alongside butterfly class as the winds had pulled the plants onto the path, I cut them back hard but they will shoot again in the spring.
Thursday 19th November
Ladybird Class
This week’s garden club had to change day, due to the very wet and windy weather on Tuesday.
Thursday it had just stopped raining ready for gardening and also PE, so I quickly collected a group of gardeners, kitted out with coats and wellies, which were a must today, as it was very wet underfoot.
The children put on their gloves then collected forks and spades from the shed.
All of the weeds were removed from each of the raised beds ,then our prize “dahlia” plants were dug up, any diseased tubers were then removed, and the children then cut off then greenery and put the plants into flower pots full with new compost, these were then taken over to the Eco house to over winter.
Gladioli were the next plants to be removed from the flower garden, using scissors the group removed the foliage, and the large bulbs were then put into pots these were also put into the Eco house to overwinter.
We collected all of the weeds and put these onto the compost heap, which is now much taller than us, and the children then had five minutes to go pond dipping, this group worked hard, Racheal, Brandon H, Brandon M and Finlay each had a dojo.
The next group Mr Brewer had chosen to go gardening, so once the children were suitably dressed, we made our way over to the learning garden.
The first job was to remove all of the tomato plants from the Eco house, we found two red tomatoes, in November that amazing!
The children put all of the old plants into the compost bin, and emptied the old compost onto the veg area, this was great fun.
Just time to dig over a small area around the raised beds, and collect any fallen branches, to use in the bug hotel.
Ten minutes left, so this group have a chance to do some pond dipping as well.
Lots of questions were asked about the creatures that we all found, then we noticed that the marginal pond plants had all turned brown, Harry said that they needed to be cut off, so using the scissors then group cut all of the plants back to the water level, being very careful not to cut the pond liner, otherwise we will have an empty pond.
Another great garden team, Harry, Sasha, Hannah and Megan all worked well.
Now it was time to get ready to go home, the learning garden is now beginning to shut down for winter.
Tuesday 24th November
Butterfly Class
Dark skies over head it looks full of rain again for green fingers garden club today.
Mrs Bendell checked her list and then, chose a group of children to come out into the learning garden with me.
Wellies and coats had to be worn today as there was a fine drizzle in the air.
The children were still as keen as ever, so we sorted out a task to do in the lodge, this was to collect some planted garden containers, remove the last of the summer bedding plants, then put in some new ones for winter colour.
Using their trowels, Lauren , Oliver W , Jacob, Saffron and Thomas all worked hard to remove all of the plants and weeds, oh dear, there was a considerable amount of dirt and greenery all over the lodge floor, so we stopped to have a clear up.
Each child now had a new plant to pot up and then new compost was put in, these containers were then carried over to the wooden planks to cheer up the garden we took a few photos.
Rain! It does not seem to want to stop today so the group then collected a large amount of flower pots from the shed and filled them half full with compost, their next job was to divide some of our hardy plants, to make us more to use in the garden later in the spring.
Fun!, any task which involves mud or compost is always popular , which ever class is in the garden, these full pots were then also taken over to the planks. Lauren said Mrs Howell we have filled twenty flower pots today and seven containers, that was just brilliant, great team work from this group, in wet and muddy conditions.
Arriving back in Butterfly class to collect the second group of gardeners, the children were having great fun, putting their hands and feet, into wet paint ready to do some printing, it was a bit like, when the children had their muddy wet gloves on, I think that we could have used them for printing also!
This next group now had to collect pruning tools, rakes, brushes and the wheel barrow, we all headed over to the “butterfly garden” to do some winter cutting back, everything had grown huge.
This children very carefully, cut back all of the lower plants, this was quite tricky, I helped with the larger shrubs, the plant material was very wet so it made the job in hand more difficult.
The children then put all of the cuttings into the wheel barrow, and Ben took the barrow over to the compost heap.
We were just about to fill the barrow again when it began to rain really hard so it was now a quick dash back to the classroom, I finished off outside, as I had more suitable clothing on.
I was so pleased with how much we achieved today with poor weather conditions, Ruby, Tegan and Tilly also worked well.
I gave a list of dojo winners to Mrs Bendell, and went back into the learning garden to clear up.
Tuesday 1st December
Dragonfly Class
A fine dry day for Green fingers garden club, Mr Brewer had all the children from the class out on the playground, so he kindly let me choose a group of year ones, to come out into the garden.
The children put on their garden gloves, and we took a walk around the learning garden, this was to look for greenery, seed heads, twigs and anything that the children could use to make a door wreath, this was quite exciting.
I had bought a metal ring to give us a base from which to work, the group then had to use strong material to build it up, and this is a new task for the children as this is the first time, that we have attempted anything like this, in garden club.
Alfie worked with rosemary, TJ had a large piece if bamboo, lily had ivy trails and Harriot worked with prickly holly she was very brave.
The boys helped with the garden wire, which held the greenery in place, the girls then put in bunches of things like heather, and pine cones.
Putting on the finishing touches, the children then chose, a small horn, gold star, bauble, and some pretty ribbon to make a bow.
The children held it up so that we could take a photo, and it’s now proudly displayed on the staff room door, well done a great team effort, on learning something new.
Now it was time for the second group of the day, these were children from reception, Ms Palmer chose some children who had their hand up quietly.
Gloves on the children were now ready, the weather was still dry, so we all made our way into the lodge, where we had to attempt to make our second “door wreath”.
The little ones carried a garden trug to collect more greenery from the learning garden, now we were ready to get started.
We talked a lot about Christmas and where the Christmas trees came from, this was very exciting.
This group were very keen to make their door wreath, we all worked together using the greenery, very carefully putting on the holly, pine cones, teasels and copper beach leaves, that Chloe had found.
Ella-Rose had found some nice white flowers to put on, whereas the boys, wanted gold stars.
We finished our creation off with some beetroot and onions, just to make it special, we hung this wreath on the banister next to the reception door, fantastic. Jameson, and Jaydon had great fun too.
Time to put out some seed for our garden birds, we only spotted three different types today, a wren, starling and of course our friendly robin.