Growing for Gold

Our Olympic flowerbed is gradually taking shape. Today, under a baking blue sky, we planted the five rings.The rings are made up of the following plants:

Blue - lobelia and ageratum

Black - black grass

Red - petunia

Yellow - marigold

Green - grass.

The background will be planted up with white alyssum in the next few weeks. In the meantime we need to nurture our rings by making sure they are kept well watered.

Bursting into life

Well after the recent cold and very wet weather, this sunny spell is more than welcome. In the space of a few days the school grounds have been transformed. There are new leaves bursting out all over the place. The fruit trees are looking very pretty adorned with their blossom flowers and the flag iris in the bog garden are just coming into flower too.

I managed to snap up a few root wrapped trees at Homebase yesterday for the princely sum of £2.66 each! So today, Declan helped me to plant them around the edge of the bog garden and give them a really good watering in.

I also managed to bag some bargain basement petunias which the year one gardeners potted up and placed near their classroom entrance. The bright red blousey flowers look terrific.

Sunshine at last!

We have had some glorious weather today and made the most of it by getting out in the garden. The year four gardening team joined me for a spot of weeding,watering and planting. We began by removing the grass and other weeds from the bog garden. The flag iris and watermint are growing well. The new addition  to the bog garden planted by the Early Years children last week looks right at home. Once the children had removed all the weeds, they gave they bog garden a thoroughly good soaking.

Next we moved on to the vegetable garden where there was yet more weeding to be done! We took time to pause by the herb bed and explore all the textures and smells. Ella-Mae loved the smell of the rosemary, whilst thought the thyme smelt the best. The chocolate mint was a winner with everyone.

Once the weeding was finished, we planted some peas and runner beans along with some colourful marigold plants.
The leeks that we had planted in the winter had grown to an impressive size, so the children harvested them and will deliver them to the school kitchen tomorrow.

The sunny weather is set to last a few more days, so hopefully we can take advantage of the sunny spell to plant some more delicious vegetables.

fagleygardeners' photostream

fagleygardeners' photostream on Flickr.

The New Growing Season

April showers, bring May flowers (and lots of weeds too!)

Yes, it looks set to be a decidedly soggy start to the growing season. Next week will involve preparing the ground for planting this years vegetables and flowers.

In the vegetable garden, the leeks and garlic planted over the winter are coming on nicely and the carrot and beetroot seeds sown a few weeks ago are starting to germinate. The remaining vegetable beds will need to be hoed in preparation for planting out this years' legumes and brassicas.

The fruit trees seemed to have survived the winter in good health and they are beginning to get their shiny new leaves.

The ground in the area set aside for our Olympic wildflower meadow was turned during the Easter holidays, so after the removal of the weeds and rubble it will be ready for us to start sowing. We have acquired some wildflower seeds from the RHS as part of their Britain in Bloom campaign (www.rhs.org.uk/britaininbloomlaunch). The seeds include corncockle, cornflower, corn marigold, corn poppy and corn chamomile.

Preparations are also underway for our Olympic rings flowerbed. Again, there is more weeding to be done, prior to us planting the flowers in June. The final display will include blue lobelias, green lettuce leaves, red petunias, yellow marigolds and black....well this is still to be decided! The black basil which was being grown for the display was unfortunately wiped out by the recent frosts. We are also raising some black coleus from seed, but it is touch and go as to whether they will grow big enough in time for the display. Black petunias are and option, but as black flowers are rather rare, this option would be rather pricey. If all else fails we might have to take a leaf out of James May's book and make some plasticine flowers!!!

If any parents, grandparents or guardians are interested in helping out with any of our gardening projects, you are more than welcome to come in and lend a hand.

Landscape Designers

Yesterday, as part of a training day I attended on gardening in schools, I was set a task to create a landscape in a seed tray from things I could forage in the woodlands. 

I enjoyed creating my own miniature world so much, that I couldn’t wait to share this activity with the children.

So, at lunchtime today, I set out my little landscape on the playground along with some seed trays and natural materials to get the children started.

After lunchtime, I went back to see what had been created. Aren’t they wonderful!

Olympic sized plans afoot!

If you have visited our school since the latest phase of building works was completed, you may have noticed the magnificent (but at present rather bare) new raised flower bed which is taking pride of place outside our new entrance.

Filling it with promises to be a feat of 'Olympian' proportions!


Watch this space for exciting developments