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Post by derekbrooks on Mar 23, 2019 22:34:13 GMT
Went to school this afternoon and weeded and forked over the root crop bed so all the main beds are done now.
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Post by derekbrooks on Mar 28, 2019 21:11:20 GMT
Four children this afternoon. Two of them worked with me, a girl and a boy. We sowed calabrese and chard in drinking cups 15 of each. The lettuce we sowed in cell trays a few weeks ago were growing and needed thinning to one per cell and the girl did that.The boy sowed two rows of radish in drills. I broke up and raked the soil first. The other children trimmed "Fred the head". I have shown you a picture of this a few years ago but I am showing it to you again to remind you. Fred the head
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Post by derekbrooks on May 2, 2019 22:06:13 GMT
Garden club started again after the Easter break so I went straight from Blackleach at 3.00. Don't know why we didn't have one last week when I was hoping we could plant the potatoes so we have got a bit behind with the jobs again. Anyway, we got more done than I expected. There were 3 boys and 2 girls. One boy planted the potatoes but I had to help him dig the trenches.I put some growmore on the bed first. Another boy sowed two rows of carrots and two rows of turnips.I hoed the bed first and raked in some growmore. The other three worked in the polytunnel .One girl sowed 30 peas in drinking cups . I told you yesterday that I had taken the tomatoes and a bag of compost. The other children started part filling the tomato pots with compost but they had used the full bag before they had finished so I will have to take some more compost this weekend .We didn't get time to plant any tomatoes. There are several other plants sown earlier that are ready for planting but we didn't have time. Also the ground for them hasn't been prepared so I will have to go and do that sometime.
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Post by roofgardener on May 8, 2019 10:23:47 GMT
A busy day, derekbrooks. I love "Fred the Head". The schools very own Green Man !
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Post by derekbrooks on May 8, 2019 21:17:01 GMT
Thanks, Roofie
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Post by derekbrooks on May 9, 2019 21:09:19 GMT
There were five children this afternoon . I mentioned last week that there were several things that were growing in drinking cups ready for planting out . It was a bit showery but we decided that we had better concentrate on those rather than plant the tomatoes .One girl sowed beetroot and broad beans in the beds and the others planted the onion sets, cabbage and beetroot, There are still cauliflowers and calabrese to do but they will have to wait till next week.
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Post by roofgardener on May 14, 2019 10:06:22 GMT
It all sounds VERY productive, derekbrooks. One thing... do you get the same children each day, or even each week ? In other words, do they get continuity ?
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Post by derekbrooks on May 14, 2019 21:27:47 GMT
Hi Roofie The children seem to change every half term which is not long enough in my opinion. It has been like this since the present headmistress started. Apart from the 4 main veg beds there are 12 small plots , only about 2 yards square ,and each child was given one of these to grow their own crops. We can't operate this system now because the children don't have the plots long enough. When a child sows seeds or plants some plants he (or she)should be able to see them grow and look after them as they do so and harvest them . This is the best way for children to learn how to grow the different crops . Gina, the lady I work with, has tried to persuade the headmistress to let children have their plots longer but she hasn't agreed. We just hope she will sometime.
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Post by roofgardener on May 16, 2019 13:26:59 GMT
Hi Roofie The children seem to change every half term which is not long enough in my opinion. It has been like this since the present headmistress started. Apart from the 4 main veg beds there are 12 small plots , only about 2 yards square ,and each child was given one of these to grow their own crops. We can't operate this system now because the children don't have the plots long enough. When a child sows seeds or plants some plants he (or she)should be able to see them grow and look after them as they do so and harvest them . This is the best way for children to learn how to grow the different crops . Gina, the lady I work with, has tried to persuade the headmistress to let children have their plots longer but she hasn't agreed. We just hope she will sometime. That must be very frustrating, derekbrooks - both for yourselves, and for the children.
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Post by derekbrooks on May 16, 2019 21:46:29 GMT
We had five children this afternoon. The main job was to plant the tomatoes and we had two of them doing this. One of them planted out some cauliflowers and chard and the others were trimming Fred The Head. They swapped over half way through. There were 26 tomatoes to plant and many of the pots had been half filled before. I had taken a bag of compost ready for them but the was only enough to plant 17. So, I will have to get some more from the hut on Saturday. They also need some to plant hanging baskets so I will have to get two bags.
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Post by derekbrooks on May 23, 2019 22:07:21 GMT
Today was the last garden club before half term so we have two or three weeks off now. We finished planting the tomatoes and planted sprouts in two of the spare beds . I took 4 that I had spare and there were some that the children had grown. Each bed held six plants.I was told that after half term we are having year one and year two children. These children are too young and I told the headmistress so but she just said that she wanted to give as many children as she could a chance to do gardening. Children of this age, though,just want to mess about rather than learn about gardening.
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Post by derekbrooks on Jun 13, 2019 22:07:35 GMT
Garden club started again today after half term. There were 6 children, 3 boys and 3 girls from years one and two. However, it was raining a bit and Gina didn't think it was worth them getting wet walking down to the polytunnel . There was not much they could have done there anyway. Gina said that all the sowing for the year had been done so she decided that they stay in school making eco posters. I went to the polytunnel to see if there was anything I could do. I removed the side shoots from the tomatoes . I then checked the sowing programme that I had made out and I couldn't find any courgettes that had been sown. I found the seed packet and saw that it hadn't been opened so I sowed some myself in drinking cups.
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Post by derekbrooks on Jun 20, 2019 22:03:59 GMT
There was no gardening that the children could do today so Gina took them litter picking. There were some peas ready for planting but the bed needed weeding first so that was my job for the afternoon .We will probably plant the peas next week. On the bed that I was weeding there were some weeds that I haven't got on the allotment or at home and I haven't seen any for years--scarlet pimpernel. I have only seen it once before when we were on holiday at the seaside several years ago and I can't remember where it was.
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Post by derekbrooks on Jun 27, 2019 21:46:26 GMT
Didn't do much with the children today. The tomatoes took up all my time. They all needed tying up and many were bending over. They should have been done before. There were a lot of side shoots too. I did show some of the children which were side shoots and how to remove them. I also gave them their first feed.
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Post by derekbrooks on Jul 4, 2019 22:07:54 GMT
I had 4 cucumber plants that needed planting. I took them to school last Tuesday. Some of the children helped me . I told them to half fill the pots with compost then showed them how to remove the plants from the pots without disturbing the roots, put then in the centre of the large pots and fill in round them with more compost and give them a good watering. One boy who, last week, I showed how to remove sideshoots from tomatoes asked if he could do them again. The rest of the children did litter picking with Gina.
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