2011 Gardening again.

There have been quite a few changes since my last post.
There are big plans afoot at Fagley Primary to improve the school grounds and offer a plethora of new and exciting learning opportunities for the children.

Along with the installation of new multi games nets, there as been the installation of a fantastic new outdoor classroom/gazebo and the re-siting of the veg beds on the school field.

A few weeks ago, a variety of young fruit trees were planted and this week, children from each class across the school were involved in weeding and planting up the veg beds.

In order to ensure the vegetables are well looked after, three children from each class (five from year 6) have been appointed to oversee the day to day tasks. The children have been organised into three teams, hedgehogs, ladybugs and bumblebees. They will follow a rota of six tasks overseeing two tasks per team each week.
These tasks are:

• Watering


• Pest Patrol


• Planting, sowing and harvesting


• Tool tidying


• Weeding


• Blogging and logging

Phew, so that's the theory. We will have to wait and see how it works out in practice

So far, the children have planted mimulas, pansies, petunias and marigolds in the Reception planters and herb bed.

In the veg beds they have planted, courgettes, strawberries, broccoli, cabbage, sprouts, french beans, sweetcorn and radish.

We had a lovely sunny morning in which to carry out the work followed by a good drenching in the afternoon. The weekend has proved incredibly windy however, so fingers crossed that our tender crops have survived!

A new year of gardening at Fagley Primary

The growing season is almost upon us. As I type, our http://www.rocketgardens.co.uk/ school garden is winging it's way to us.

Year 3 are studying 'helping plants grow well' in science this term and as part of this topic, they will be helping to plant out our lovely new veggies.

Our caretaker has also been busy constructing our new greenhouse acquired through the Morrisons Let's grow scheme. I will be helping him to put the final pieces together tomorrow. So hopefully it will be ready in time to receive our tender new plants.
This year we plan to grow:

Tomatoes
Strawberries
Potatoes
Lettuces
French Beans
Runner Beans
Beetroot
Cauliflowers
Cabbages
Spinach
Courgettes
Leeks

We also plan to grow a medicinal herbs and flowers bed with a view to producing some herbal remedies later in the year.

Who has been eating our brassicas?

It would appear that some little pest has been munching on our brassicas. On first inspection, we thought that it was slugs and snails. However, the extent of the damage and the telltale droppings suggest our vegetable assassin is of the winged variety. So the question is how do we stop the pigeons!!

The best option is probably going to be netting, though the children quite fancy the idea of making scarecrows so we may go for a 'belt and braces' option.

Unperturbed by the damage to our current crops, the children got on with sowing some rocket and radishes. They also topped up the potato tubs with what remained of the compost stockpile. At the rate the potato plants are growing, we will need to buy in some more compost very soon.

Pumpkins are in

Today, the children planted out some pumpkin plants. The variety we are growing are called 'Ghost Rider' and are particularly good for using as Halloween lanterns.

We also watered the veg that had been planted out on Tuesday and labelled the beds with the names of the veggies growing in them.

So in time honoured Bullseye style, here is a rundown of what has been planted so far!

In 1 - the Italians call them zucchini, they can be green or yellow - yes they're courgettes.

In 2 - they are big orange can can be very spooky - they're pumpkins

In 3 - no Christmas lunch would be complete without them - they're Brussels sprouts

In 4 - this variety is January King - It's winter cabbages

In 5 - just keep cutting and they'll come again - they're salad leaves

In 6 - nothing yet (unless you count the weeds!)

In 7 - great with cheese - It's cauliflower

In 8 - don't cry about this one - they're Spanish onions

In 9 - they dig a good beat - It's beetroot

And bully's special prize, the crazy guys on the block - they're wildflowers!

Hoe, Hoe, Hoe

Today, we tackled the weeds with a vengence.

The children got busy and hoed the weeds out of three of the unused raised beds. They then planted out the courgettes, brussel sprouts and cabbages that had been started off in pots.

Over the holiday, the salad leaves had run to seed, so these were pulled out to make way for new sowings. The beetroot and cauliflower beds also had a thorough weeding.

The potatoes are coming along nicely. Today, the children added extra compost to the poato barrels and gave them a good watering.

And then the heavens opened!

Today, we ventured out hoping to dodge the showers.

The children transplanted the climbing beans sown by class 2, into larger growing containers. We just managed to get two of the containers planted up and a wigwam of support canes into one of the containers before the heavens opened. So we hastily beat a retreat indoors.

The children planted up the final container indoors. Hopefully we will be able to dodge the showers for long enough this week to get outside and put support canes in the other two containers.


Whilst inside, the children planted some more courgette seeds. We have put these seeds into the mini-greenhouse to germinate as the ones put in the heated propagator last week grew too leggy.

With all the rain forecast, at least we don't have to worry about the raised beds drying out over the spring bank holiday!

Anyone for salad?

Today the children planted out the flower seedlings that were sown a few weeks ago. They have been placed in the grounds of the children's centre and will provide a splash of colour in the coming months (provided they survive the marauding snail population!)

The cauliflower plants have taken a bit of a battering in the high winds over the last week so it may be necessary to transplant a few more and provide them with some cover until they can become more established.

The cut and come again salad leaves planted several weeks ago have done very well and we were able to harvest some today. The children all had a little taste and the rest of the leaves will be accompanying tomorrow's school lunch. The children are very excited about the rest of the school sampling their first crop. We also sowed some more salad leaves so that hopefully we can provide the kitchen with a regular supply of fresh produce!