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Post by derekbrooks on Jul 6, 2017 22:02:22 GMT
There's not much for the children to do now . All the sowing for the year is done. The only plants that needed planting were some Swiss chard. I only needed one girl to do these so Gina took the rest litter picking round the playing fields. Where the chard were to be planted there were some lettuce so I harvested these and the children took them home. there were just 12 chard plants so she planted them in two rows of six which didn't take her long. There were some sunflowers in pots that hadn't grown properly so I asked her to empty these pots. She helped me to put longer canes on the cucumber plants after and I showed her how to tie them up. some of the tomato plants needed tying again so I did that and I gave them their first feed.
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Post by derekbrooks on Jul 13, 2017 22:37:35 GMT
Today has been the last garden club till September. There was nothing for me to do with the children . They all did a bug hunt with Gina. The water butt had emptied last time I was there and there was mud in the bottom . I swilled it out and filled it up with the hosepipe. Some of the tomato plants had got untidy with sideshoots that should have been removed before so I tidied them up and tied them up if needed. Gina and the caretaker will see to the watering during the holidays but I will go in every week to feed the tomatoes. I fed them today but they will be missed next week because I am away.
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Post by derekbrooks on Sept 21, 2017 21:26:20 GMT
Garden club started again today after the long holidays. The headmistress now wants garden club to be combined with an eco friendly club . I think the way it will work out will be half of the children do gardening with me and half do eco friendly activities with Gina and then they will swop over. The next gardening job that needs doing is to dig up the potatoes but we had no sacks to put them in Gina said she would get some paper sacks for next week. There were 7 children and 3 of them started doing pond dipping with me and the other 4 did eco friendly activities with Gina and they swopped over half way through. I will tell you more about the eco friendly activities in the next few weeks and possibly take some pictures to show you what they have been doing. There are several veg that are ready for harvesting. There are broad beans,tomatoes, cucumbers , cabbages, calabrese and courgettes . I suggested to Gina that she ask the cook if they could use any in the kitchen or let children take them home. She said that she has to make a hamper for the church harvest so she wanted to keep them for that. I fed the tomatoes before I came home.
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Post by derekbrooks on Sept 28, 2017 21:06:52 GMT
We had 6 children today and as I told you last week the headmistress wants them to do eco friendly projects as well as gardening. So 3 worked with Gina and 3 with me and after half an hour they swopped over. It was a dry day so we dug up the potatoes. They have been ready for digging up for a while, of course, but we wanted to wait till the children were back after the holidays. This is only the second week back and we couldn't do them last week. Gina wants some of them to put in her hamper for the harvest but each child took some home.
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Post by derekbrooks on Oct 5, 2017 21:40:30 GMT
We had 6 children again. The only gardening job to do at present is to plant the onion sets. The bed where I want them planting isn't ready though. There are still some finished crops on it and it needs weeding. Gina said she would get it ready another day so there was no jobs for the children to do. I told you that the headmistress wanted children to do eco friendly activities as well as gardening and this includes learning more about wildlife. Gina decided that today they should do some bird watching so 3 of them did this with me and the other three did other eco friendly activities with Gina in the polytunnel and after half an hour they swopped over. I walked round the football field with each group . They all had binoculars but all we saw were some pigeons on a roof. I have seen birds on the football field many a time but today there was a football match on so NO BIRDS. It was a waste of time really except that they had practice using binoculars.If only I could have taken them to Blackleach, there are plenty of birds there but there but there is not time in an hour to go there or anywhere else.
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Post by derekbrooks on Oct 12, 2017 20:49:10 GMT
Gina said last week that she would try and weed the ground where I want to plant the winter onions but she hasn't been able to. She decide that the children would do litter picking and bug hunting so while they were doing this I weeded the ground for the onions and raked some growmore in. I then asked Gina if I could have two of the children and they planted the onions. I had grown potatoes in four bags at school . I brought these bags home then I could use the compost as we have no use for it at school. I had to wheel them up to the school gates then go for my car which I had parked near the allotments to bring them home. I will probably take them to Blackleach for Billy to put on the nursery beds as he had done last Tuesday. It is half term next week so I have a week off from school.
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 2, 2017 22:04:11 GMT
Garden club started again after half term. We have only 4 children now. They pulled up a lot of turnips that were big enough, cut off the leaves and washed the roots. Gina took some to the kitchen for the cook to use and the children all took some home. The courgettes had finished so we pulled up the plants and put them in a compost bin. This bed is empty now so I started forking it over and weeding it , just like I do on my allotment.
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 9, 2017 22:12:38 GMT
Today, Gina had the children litter picking because there isn't much gardening for them to do now. They didn't need me to help with this so I continued forking over and weeding the vacant beds, just like I do on the allotment.
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 16, 2017 19:58:55 GMT
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 16, 2017 20:14:23 GMT
When I arrived at school this afternoon Gina showed me this carrot . We grow carrots in tubes in bore holes filled with sieved potting compost. The rest had been harvested before but this one had been left till now for some reason. It is just about the nicest carrot I have ever seen. It is perfect and weighs 1 pound 11 ounces and is nearly 3 inches diameter at the top. I keep forgetting to take my camera so I brought it home then I could take a picture of it to show you. I will take it back then the cook can use it in the kitchen. The children carried on with Eco friendly projects. I keep saying I will take my camera then I can show you a picture of the things they are making. The caretaker said he would cut down the tomato plants and clear them out a few weeks ago but he has been too busy so I did them this afternoon.
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 23, 2017 23:02:28 GMT
I didn't think I would be needed to work with the children this afternoon so I decided to empty the pots that had grown tomatoes. I had cut the plants down last week. I took 6 empty compost bags to put the compost from the pots into. As I have told you before the school polytunnel is alongside the allotments so I parked my car on the allotments and pushed the bags through the railings then walked round to school. I managed to empty all the pots (26 altogether, I think)and also 8 bottomless pots which had grown tomatoes on top of growbags. My 6 bags weren't enough but there were some there so I have filled 8 bags with the compost. I then threw all the pots over the railings onto the allotments and walked round for my car and brought them all home . I will wash them all and take them back ready for next year. Garden club has now finished till next year so I won't be going on Thursdays again till then. I will have to go again sometime though to collect the 8 bags of compost( I couldn't throw those over the railings). I will probably take the pots back them .We have no use for all this compost at school so I will probably put it on my allotment and I may take some to Blackleach for Billy to put on the nursery beds.
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Post by derekbrooks on Apr 26, 2018 21:35:55 GMT
Garden club started again today . It is a month later than we have started before so we are behind with the jobs. I had originally made a sowing and planting plan beginning in March but I have had to change it and instead of 3 or4 jobs to do each week , for the next few weeks there will be 5 or 6 to catch up. There were 8 children but they couldn't all work on these jobs at once. One thing we could have done would have been sowing root crops outside but this bed hadn't been dug and weeded. We decided that 4 children work with Gina in the polytunnel doing the jobs on the list and the other 4 weeded the small beds outside , looking for bugs at the same time and I forked over and weeded the root crop bed. The 4 children working with Gina in the polytunnel planted onion sets in drinking cups, sowed cauliflowers, sunflowers, leeks and cabbage in drinking cups and lettuce in cell trays. This is more that I expected them to do.
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Post by derekbrooks on May 3, 2018 21:23:33 GMT
We had seven children today. Three of them worked with me and the rest did more weeding on the small beds. We planted the potatoes. I dug the trenches and the children put them in and raked the soil back over them. We did five rows of six. I had manured the plot before and today I raked in some growmore before we began. I also raked growmore into the root crop bed and while two children were doing the potatoes , the other boy sowed two rows each of swedes and turnips.
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Post by derekbrooks on May 10, 2018 21:04:31 GMT
There were 8 children this afternoon . I just had three girls working with me ,the rest went with Gina weeding tubs at the front of the school. The beds needed forking over and raking first. Two girls sowed beetroot in three rows. I told them to make shallow drills and sow the seed thinly along. It would have been better with just one girl . There is not really room for two to work together in a small place. The other girl sowed broad beans in two rows about 9 inches apart . I told her to push them in about two inches deep, keeping them upright if she could. She had 6 beans left so I told her to sow them in pots in case any of the others didn't grow. I am hoping to plant the tomatoes next week so when they had finished these jobs I told them to put all the pots in place and half fill them with compost.
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Post by derekbrooks on May 17, 2018 21:48:25 GMT
We planted the tomatoes this afternoon. I had taken them to school yesterday. There are 26 altogether, 2 rows of 13. I had decided that we would have all cordon varieties in one row and bush varieties in the other. The final pots had been half filled with compost last week. I showed the children how to knock them out of the pots without disturbing the roots. I had 4 children with me so I had 2 working on each side. I showed them how to plant one by putting the plant in the centre and filling round with compost. I explained that when planted, the top of the compost should be about half an inch below the top of the pot. When I had told them this I just left them to it and they got them finished. We were a bit short of compost for some of the pots so I will have to get some more from the hut on Saturday.
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