Garden Club
The gardening club began in September 2021. We have had some very kind donations of strawberry plants, hand rakes, hand forks, tyres and plant pots.
Our bug hotel. We are hoping to attract a diverse range of insects in to the garden to help keep unwanted pests away! This is very important when we are trying to grow fruit and vegetables. We are hoping the bug hotel will encourage the types of bugs and insects that are natural predators of the ones that may eat our plants we are growing. It should also encourage birds to visit and they will in turn rid the garden of slugs! Bug hotels also provide a natural habitat for our native insects, such as the bumblebee, that are declining in Britain. The children filled the holes in with straw, bark, leaves, twigs and conifer leaves.
Our compost bin. This is an environmentally friendly way to reduce garden waste and turn it in to our own nutrient rich fertiliser. The more compost we use in the garden the healthier our plants will be. Children have enjoyed filling this up with fallen leaves, apple cores and orange peel. We will continue to fill this with garden waste.
Planting. So far, we have planted garlic in tyres as well as daffodils and wild flowers which we are hoping attract butterflies, bees and other insects. We have six raised beds, we have planted onions, spring cabbage and strawberries in three of these.
Over the next few months, we will be planting potatoes, raspberries, carrots, leeks, parsnips, pumpkins, sunflowers, peas and sweet peas. In our polytunnel we will be planting tomatoes and peppers.
We aim to be as environmentally friendly as possible, using old wellington boots and tyres as a way of introducing different ways of recycling unwanted items as plant pots.
We will post some more photos as the plants grow.
January - April 2022
Things are slowly beginning to bloom and grow in our garden area. The children are all working very hard developing the Gorseybrigg garden, orchard and other green areas around the school. The children have braved wet and windy weather to plant a multitude of different flowers, trees, fruit and vegetables. All the children show a genuine interest in learning about growing vegetables from seeds, how to encourage insects to our garden and the importance of pollination.
Our first signs of spring! Our beautiful daffodils, wildflowers beginning to grow on the top of the bug hotel and rhubarb in old tyres.
Last autumn you all kindly donated your Morrisons gardening vouchers to the school. We purchased a water butt to collect rain water from the shed, two watering cans and some more seeds. These are all very welcome additions to our garden. The water butt will ensure our plants are watered and we are also able to save water in this way.
The school received a beautiful pink cherry tree from the Sakura Cherry Planting Project last year. This year we received another six cherry trees. We planted these trees outside the staffroom to bring a variety of different colours to this area of the school. Recently we noticed these trees have developed signs of buds and blossom. The spring blossom from these trees will provide a wonderful source of nectar for butterflies and moths as well as pollen for bees.
The school also received a selection of trees from the company One Plant Matters. These include apple, pear, plum and cherry trees. We planted these trees in our orchard area at the bottom of the school field. These trees are also showing early signs of blossom. We are very excited to see which fruit will grow first!
Since Christmas we have planted raspberries, spinach and beetroot in the raised beds. Also, potatoes, peas, carrots, sweet peas, sugar-snap peas, tomatoes, peppers and sunflowers. We have also created a corridor for wildflowers in the hope of encouraging as many bees and butterflies to visit our garden as possible.
Over the next few months, we will be planting the tomatoes and peppers to larger tubs, planting pumpkins and leeks in the raised beds, strawberries in old wellington boots and creating a log pile using the fallen branches and twigs from the trees in the school.
More photos will be posted soon showing the growth of our fruit, vegetables and flowers.