Frozen Ground

Like much of the country, we have been sub zero conditions over the past week. This has left the ground frozen, putting pay to our planting plans. We have temporarily potted the bare rooted  trees and hopefully, after the half term break, we will be able to transplant them into their permanent positions.

Lots of Lovely Tree-liveries!

We are looking forward to a few busy weeks of planting at Fagley Primary (weather permitting).
On Tuesday, we received our first delivery from Morrisons following our successful Let's Grow campaign last autumn. Our delivery included two Bramley apple trees, two pear trees  and some gooseberry, blueberry and raspberry bushes. Thank you so much to all the parents who sent in vouchers enabling us to acquire these new additions to our ever growing mini orchard. If you would like to be involved in helping the children to plant our new trees and bushes please let me know.


On Wednesday, a delivery or hedgerow plants (including holly, hazel and dogwood) arrived courtesy of the Woodland Trust. These plants are still very small and will require lots of care and attention, which I am sure our gardening team will be happy to provide. Our new hedgerow will provide a valuable habitat for the animals and birds with whom we share our school grounds.


Finally, on Friday three fig trees were delivered from Palmer's Plants (the suppliers of our impressive Christmas tree). These will be planted on Friday as part of our Jewish Faith Day.

A Family of Tigers Take Up Residence at Fagley Primary!

The tigers arrived in the post today all the way from Devon.  A Year 5 boy helped me to build their new home in the quad and then carefully release them.  Next he gave them their first meal of pear cores, banana skins and soggy newspaper.

I sense an air of disbelief among you. Ok, I will come clean. Our new residents are in fact TIGER WORMS. There are several hundred different species of worm, but tiger worms are particularly suited to composting kitchen waste. Our new wormery will allow us to recycle some of our kitchen waste and produce nutrient rich compost to use in the school vegetable garden.

Our tiger worms will eat any dead or decaying organic matter such as kitchen scraps,  vegetable peelings, bread, tea bags, egg shells and paper kitchen towels. Small amounts of leaf litter and grass cuttings can also be added. We need to be careful not to add too much citrus peel as this can make the environment too acidic for the worms.

Class 2,  along with a year 5 child and myself will be helping to feed and look after the worms, so if you would like to know any more about our wormery please ask.

Garden Team Meeting Outcomes.

Members of the garden team met on Thursday to discuss a range of issues including the following:


Site Zones and Plans

I took the garden team around the site to shown them what has been planted so far and where other trees and shrubs will be planted this year.

Tree Grant Application

We are currently in the process of applying for a grant from the Trees for Schools fund. The garden team consulted field guides to help decide which trees would be best suited to our site. Laburnum was a popular choice due to it's striking yellow blooms. However, the children decided that because the seeds of the laburnum tree are poisonous, it would not be suitable for our school grounds. 

Some of the group chose field maple because they felt that children would enjoy playing with the winged seeds. Silver birch was another suggestion due to it's attractive white bark. Rowan was chosen as the berries would be a good food source for birds and white hornbeam was picked for it's pretty leaves.  The reasons given why we need more trees in the school grounds were:

• To make the grounds look more attractive
• To provide shade in summer
• To attract more wildlife
• So that we can draw, photograph and write about them.

Bog Garden

It was decided that posters and information sheets would be made to tell children more about the bog garden, the plants in the bog garden, the wildlife we hope it will attract and how to look after it.

Outdoor Classroom

The garden team expressed concern about how muddy the area in and around the outdoor classroom has become over the winter. It was suggested that it would be good to extend the block paving path up to the outdoor classroom. If this is too expensive, fake grass, bark chippings and sand were also suggested.

Grounds Maintenance

It was decided close the areas above playground 2 and 3 at play times and lunchtimes until half term to give the grass chance to recover and the spring bulbs time to establish. An information sheet will be circulated to inform children and staff of this decision and the reasons for it.

Vegetable Garden

Suggestions for crops to grow this year included potatoes, lettuce, tomatoes, beans, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, edible flowers, rhubarb and fruit bushes. At our next meeting we will draw up a planting plan

Use of School Wellingtons

Concerns have been raised that the wellingtons are not being used or stored properly.  Guidelines have been drawn up for children to follow when using the wellies. A copies of these will be circulated to all classes and will displayed by the welly rack along with the posters made by the garden team. garden team members will also be responsible for monitoring the use of school wellies.

Fagley Primary welcomes a new year in the school garden

It is set to be an exciting year in the school garden with plans for the introduction of many more trees, shrubs and ornamental features.

The garden team will be meeting in the next week to discuss what we will be growing in the vegetable garden. They will also be contributing to a grant application to help us secure funding for more trees on site.

February's Family Faith Day will centre around the Jewish festival of Tu B'Shvat, the Jewish new year for trees. Children will be helping to plant fruiting trees and bushes.

Christmas is coming, it must be time for Brussels!

We have come to the end of our growing year and the final crops to harvest were our sprouts and cabbages. Despite the onslaught of gulls and caterpillars over the summer, we still managed to produce a respectable bowl of Brussels and four healthy green cabbages.

The year one garden team delivered our harvested produced to the kitchen staff. The cabbages will be on the school menu this Wednesday and the Brussels sprouts will take pride of place on the Christmas lunch menu on Thursday.

Leaf litter collecting.

This afternoon, members of the KS2 Garden Team headed down to Fagley Community Centre to help collect leaf litter to compost. Armed with rakes and spades, they managed to collect two huge bagfuls. The eagle eyed children spotted a whole host of mini beasts hiding out amongst the autumn leaves including earthworms, ladybirds and earwigs. Next job on the list was to plant some garlic in the Community Centre vegetable beds. Pete also gave us some cloves to take back to school to add to the ones planted by the year one children yesterday.

The wellingtons donated so far were a put to good use as it was very muddy underfoot (much to the children's pleasure). We still need lots more wellies though and we are looking at ways of increasing our stocks. In the meantime any further donations of boots (and waterproofs) will be gratefully received.