Our Clucky Planter is off to Chelsea!

Last week, we received the fantastic news that our chicken feeder planter has been selected by Scotts Miracle-Gro to feature on their 1940s garden stand at the Chelsea Flower Show. The feeder, which has been planted with broad beans and forget-me-nots, was collected this week for transportation down to London. The show opens to the public on May 21st and runs through to May 25th.

Two children from our school have been invited to attend the show and help promote the Miracle-Gro garden in which our planter will feature. More details regarding the children selected for this amazing opportunity will follow shortly. For more details on the Chelsea Flower Show go to http://www.rhs.org.uk and to find out more about the Scotts Miracle-Gro Schools campaign visit http://www.lovethegarden.com/schools

Springing into life

Spring may have eventually arrived at Fagley Primary! The bulbs we planted in Autumn have begun to emerge. In entrance way planter, grape hyacinths now border the winter pansies. In the butterfly garden, daffodils in a variety of yellows and oranges bob merrily in the Spring breeze.

Now the latest phase of building work has been completed, we have been able to continue with our hedge laying on perimeter of the school field. We have been planting a combination of hawthorn, hazel and osier. We are also planting a small copse of downy birch and goat willow.

 These trees, donated by the Woodland Trust, should go some way to alleviating the issues we have with heavy, wet soil.

May will see the The Chelsea Flower Show celebrate its 100th year. As part of the celebrations, Miracle-Gro are creating a garden through the ages. They have asked for schools across the country  to grow flowers and vegetables to illustrate typical gardens from a number of eras over the last century. Fagley Primary have been growing plants for their 1940s garden. We have planted an old chicken feeder and tin bath with broad beans, forget-me-nots and poppies. We should find out this week whether or not our planters have been selected to exhibit at the show.

In other Chelsea Flower Show news, I have been selected to champion a plant (the Erysimum Bowles's Mauve) as part of the show's   'Plant of the Centenary' contest. More information on the Plant of the Centenary can be found on the Royal Horticultural Society website http://www.rhs.org.uk/chelsea/POTC

Mud, Mulch and Eyeball Cakes!

Some dry relatively mild and not ridiculously windy weather at last today. Our site has begun to resemble a quagmire in many places due to the constant rain and recent heavy snow. So the Year 3 Garden Team headed out with me this afternoon to carry out some maintenance work. The entrance to our vegetable garden has become extremely muddy and squelchy. Though wonderful fun to splosh about in (as the Year 3 Garden Team were happy to demonstrate) is making it rather difficult to safely move equipment in and out of the vegetable garden. We still have a good pile of bark chipping at the bottom of the driveway which the children enthusiastically wheel-barrowed up to the vegetable garden (Giving each other the odd lift along the way!).

They also decided it would be rather fun to 'plant' each other in the bark chippings so that when they grew big, they could be picked and turned into 'kid cakes' in the school kitchen complete with eyeball decorations on the top!!! Unfortunately it was time for the children to go back to class, so we didn't get to find out if they would make tasty cakes.

Next the Year 4 Team joined me outside to put up some of the bird boxes decorated by the Year 3 Forest School group last week. The children looked for places high enough to prevent cats from reaching them and out of direct sunlight so that the boxes would not become to hot (if we ever get any sun!)

We will be erecting the rest of the nesting boxes next week as part of National Nest Box Week.

To find out more go to: http://www.bto.org/nnbw/index.htm

Preparing for a New Year

We took advantage of the mild spell today in order to clear out our raised beds. The Year 6 Garden Team dug out and composted the lettuce, broccoli and cauliflower crops left over from the summer plantings. After removing any weeds, they dug in some soil improver and raked over the the surface ready for planting in the spring.

It is a bit early for us to sow many crops yet as we are expecting some frosty weather soon. Some crops such as garlic and broad beans actually benefit from a cold snap (known as a stratification period) so are fine to plant out in winter. Most other vegetable crops that we grow in our school beds like to have warmer soil to get them off to a good start.

There are still plenty of jobs to be getting on with at this time of year. We still have some hedgerow shrubs to plant before the the tree planting season comes to a close in March. We also plan to add some more willow to our willow bed.

Any pots that are to be reused need to be washed out and disinfected to prevent any lingering diseases being passed on to new plants.

Walkways can suffer in the wet winter weather, so it is a good idea to add some bark chippings or similar to prevent the paths from becoming too churned up. Cardboard can be placed under the bark chippings to stop them sinking into the soil. The cardboard will eventually decompose into the soil.

It is also a great time to look through seed catalogues a create a planting plan for the year. A good indoor activity is to create information signs to tell people information about what is planted in the gardens. We will be collecting some twigs around the school grounds to turn into plant markers. The children can try their hand at pyrography to write the names of the plants on the twig markers.

Winter Planting

Our Olympic Rings put on a fabulously fragrant show over the summer, but it was finally time to clear the bed out ready for our winter planting.


Bradford Council Landscape Division kindly provided us with 500 winter pansies for us to use to make our winter display.

We have spelled out the word ‘Fagley’ in pale yellow pansies in the centre of the bed. Children from Year One and Year Six joined me to plant some gorgeous deep blue pansies to frame the edge of the bed.

The children had to work out how many flowers they would have each to plant. We had two trays of flowers each containing 28 plants. We wanted to share the two trays of flowers between the four corners of the flowerbed. Can you work out how many flowers we had to plant in each corner?

We also had huge fun racing to collect dozens of bags of leaves which will be turned into leaf mulch to feed our vegetable beds, fruit trees and flowering borders.

Make sure you take a look at our ‘Fagley’ flowerbed next time you are passing the school entrance and if you have any suggestions for future planting plans, we would love to hear them.

 

The Year 4 and 6 Garden Teams joined me outside on Friday to continue planting our Woodland Trust hedging shrubs. Chelsea and Abdullah worked together to plant some blackthorn (prunus spinosa) and elder (sambucus nigra) shrubs. These shrubs both produce wonderful dark berries which will provide a valuable food source for birds.

Marceli and Jack added some winter pansies and dog rose plants to our butterfly border, whilst Charlotte and Abby planted dogwood (cornus) down the edge of the entrance path. The new growth of the dogwood tree is a spectacularly rich red colour making it a valuable addition to a winter planting scheme. In the Springtime, the crimson stems can be pruned and used for weaving projects.

Building a Butterfly Border

The next phase of building work has begun at Fagley Primary. The latest phase will see the creation of new more spacious Year 5 and 6 classrooms and common room; a food technology room; new cloakrooms and lavatories; a first floor technology suite. There will also be a covered outdoor area to provide extra opportunities for outdoor learning.

The extension of the existing building necessitates the re-loaction of the multi-sports pitch.
The re-modelling has required the removal of several small trees and established shrubs. Ever aware of our environmental responsibility at Fagley Primary, we asked if the trees and shrubs could be salvaged so that we could plant them elsewhere in the school grounds.

We are currently working on creating a bee and butterfly garden opposite our kitchen garden. The woody perennial shrubs including lavender, rosemary and hebe will provide structure and maturity in our new butterfly border. Once these had been planted, we were be able to add spring flowering bulbs and a selection of perennials and annuals to provide year round interest. 

RHS Schools Regional Conference at Harlow Carr

The first Annual Schools Regional Conference took place at Harlow Carr on 17th October 2012. This was a fantastic opportunity for representatives from schools all over the North of England to meet and hear about all the fun and exciting ways in which growing can be weaving into the curriculum.
http://apps.rhs.org.uk/schoolgardening/teachershome/news/schoolsregionalconference.aspa

At Fagley Primary we are particularly keen to explore ways in which we can link growing to enterprise activities.

On school which was done this to great effect is St John's of Beverly Catholic Primary. The former Deputy Head gave the keynote speech in which he highlighted how growing can lie at the heart of the curriculum and how running an enterprise project around gardening enables children to gain real life business skills.

During the day, we attended a number of workshops including 'Sneaky Ways to Teach Maths and Science Through Gardening' and 'How to Make Your School Garden Pay'. I picked up many useful ideas, some of which  have already implemented at school, such as potting up your strawberry runners to sell in spring.

I am also looking forward to making the giant vegetable rulers and willow plant pot stars with the Garden Team.

Meanwhile, back at school there is still plenty to be getting on with. We still have some more spring bulbs to plant and mulch to spread. We also have just taken delivery of our hedgerow plants from the Woodland Trust. These include, holly, dogwood, hazel and hawthorn.  As well as planting our hedgerow shrubs, we need to clear out the Olympic Flowerbed which put on such a fabulous show over the summer and replace the old bedding plants with winter flowering pansies (generously supplied by Bradford Council Landscape Division.

We are always keen to involve parents and grandparents, so if you have greenfingers and some spare time on your hands, please feel free to come along and lend a hand.