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Post by derekbrooks on Feb 21, 2013 20:36:16 GMT
Went to school this afternoon for the first time this year.I was told that there was going to be the "life skills "class and garden club.Just to refresh your memory from last year, "life skills"is from 2.30 till 3.30 and gardening is one of the subjects covered. Garden club is after school from 3.30 till 4.30. so normally I have to go for 2 hours.When I got there I was told by the caretaker that Gina, (the lady who I help) was not in and there was no garden club. He was doing something with the life skills children so I wasn't needed after all.So I went to the allotment and wheeled four barrows of manure round to school and put them on the veg beds.
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Post by derekbrooks on Feb 28, 2013 21:03:03 GMT
Gina phoned me last night saying that she wouldn't be at school again today. Last Thursday she had to take her daughter to hospital . She is still not well and Gina has to have time off work to look after her. There is not much the children can do at this time of year . They have had a load of wood chip delivered and she told me that the children in life skills and garden club would be helping Steve, the caretaker, to barrow it onto the paths and spread it out. I just went at 3.30 to fork the manure that I took last Thursday into the beds.There are three beds that need manure but I only got time to do two of them.I took some potatoes and before I started the manuring I showed some of the children how to stand them in trays to start them chitting. They took them into school and put them on a windowsill.
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Post by derekbrooks on Mar 7, 2013 21:31:16 GMT
I wasn't needed to work with the children again today . They were only barrowing wood chip again so I worked on my own. I forked the manure that I took round on Tuesday into one of the veg beds. I then pruned the 9 fruit trees that we planted a few months ago and took some pictures of them. I needed some pictures of fruit trees to put in the book I am writing. I then tidied up the herb garden which was looking a bit of a mess. The herbs all needed cutting back.
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Post by derekbrooks on Mar 14, 2013 17:35:22 GMT
There was no life skills class today, just the afterschool gardening club. We planted potatoes in bags in the polytunnel for the competition that we go in for every year. There were 4 tubers of Rocket and 3 of one called Regional (one that I have never heard of). We used the potting compost from our hut that I took round the other day.This didn't take long and it was raining so the children couldn't go out. They sat making and colouring posters the rest of the time so I worked on my own. I seived the compost that had grown potatoes last year and mixed some Q4 fertiliser with it and we are going to use it for carrots In the polytunnel there are two long potting benches that we fill with compost. We sell two different composts at the hut a potting and a multipurpose. Last year the potting compost was £1.30 a bag dearer so I just took them multipurpose to save money .This year there is only15pence difference so I decided we would use both and have one in one bench and one in the other and I will decide which to use for each job
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Post by derekbrooks on Mar 21, 2013 20:23:59 GMT
Today I wasn't needed for the life skills class. For the garden club as you probably know , each year I make a sowing and planting plan for each week and we started this today.We planted onion sets and peas in drinking cups and sowed three kinds of lettuce in cell trays
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Post by derekbrooks on Apr 11, 2013 22:13:17 GMT
School started again this week after the Easter holidays. I have been on a coach trip from Blackleach today and didn't get back in time to go to the "life skills"class but I went at 3.30 for the garden club. When I arrived ,Gina told me that there was no garden club. She had only found out this morning and couldn't get in touch with me to tell me. Anyway , Gina and Steve,the caretaker,had decided to do the jobs that we were due to do in garden club with the "life skills"children. They had planted the potatoes and sown cabbages, calabrese and chard in drinking cups.
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Post by derekbrooks on Apr 18, 2013 22:04:16 GMT
Today the life skills children wer barrowing woodchip again . I wasn't needed to help with this so I worked on my own. There are about 10 plastic tubes 7 inch diameter screwed to a fence and filled with compost for growing long carrots(I think I have told you about them before). I decided to empty out the compost from them and then put it back in. This is just to loosen up the compost so that it doesn't get too compacted.Anyway it was a harder job that I imagined. I thought I could just empty the compost into a barrow but the tubes were too heavy to lift.I had to lay them on the ground and get the compost out with a trowel and didn't have time to do them all. In garden club we carried on with the sowing programme. Two girls at a time worked with me doing this and the rest weeded their own plots. The girls swopped over so that most of them worked with me a bit. We sowed three rows of turnips outside and in the polytunnel we sowed leeks in drinking cups and more lettuce(4 varieties)into cell trays
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Post by derekbrooks on Apr 25, 2013 21:44:51 GMT
The "life skills"children today were threading cheerios (the breakfast cerial) onto strings for them to take home to hang up on trees for the birds.I think I showed you a picture of them a few years ago.While they were doing this I just did some weeding on some of the spare beds . There was a lot of bittercress on some of them. In garden club we only had four girls but we sowed beetroot and carrots outside and in the polytunnel sowed French beans in drinking cups. I told you about the tubes we have for growing long carrots and that I had emptied the compost out and put it back again to loosen it.Today I made bore holes in this compost and filled them with some compost that I had sieved . We will sow seeds in them next week.
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Post by derekbrooks on May 2, 2013 21:26:06 GMT
Some of the "life skills"children were working with Steve,the caretaker and the others did pond dipping with Gina. We grow the tomatoes in 9 inch square pots and I decided to wash them ready for planting. In garden club some of them did pond dipping and some weeded their own plots and two worked with me . They kept taking turns though so that all had a turn at the different jobs. Those working with me sowed swedes and radishes in the bed and long carrots in the tubes I told you about last week.They all planted an onion set in a drinking cup to take home . We didn't have time to plant any tomatoes so these will be done next week.
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Post by derekbrooks on May 9, 2013 22:40:00 GMT
Today in garden club we have planted most of the tomaoes but we hadn't enough compost to finish them all.Will have to take another bag next week. We also sowed more lettuce in cell trays. The life skills children decorated a water butt for a competition, They painted it to look like a bee. Will show you a picture of it next week
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Post by derekbrooks on May 10, 2013 20:51:16 GMT
Ducklings hatched at school
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Post by derekbrooks on May 16, 2013 22:06:42 GMT
Today I was not needed to help with the life skills class. The children were working with Steve,the caretaker. I just did some watering and weeding. The only job scheduled for garden club was to sow 15 drinking cups with cauliflowers so one girl did that. (they are all girls by the way). However there were things ready for planting that were sown earlier and the turnips needed thinning . I suggested to Gina that the same girls who sowed the seeds should follow the crop through. I thought they would learn more that way. I could have thinned the turnips myself and Gina suggested that I did it but this is not teaching the children. Therefore the same two girls who sowed the seeds did the thinning.Before they came out I just thinned part of each row to demonstrate to them how to do it and then watched them for a bit to see that they wer doing it right.. Also the girl who sowed the cabbages and kale planted those out and I showed her how to do it.The same thing happened with onion sets which had been sown in pots.. Most of the girls last week were planting tomatoes but we hadn't time to do them all and there were 6 cucumbers needed planting. However we ran short of compost so the cucumbers were not planted.I will have to get another bag on Saturday. I said last week that I would show you a picture of the decorated water butt today but it had been left outside and the paint had washed off.
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Post by derekbrooks on May 23, 2013 21:47:00 GMT
Today the children in life skills were divided in half . Three boys worked with me weeding the butterfly bed and sensory garden . The girls worked with Gina planting hanging baskets. They did this for half an hour then swapped over and I had the girls and she had the boys. They take orders for hanging baskets from parents and sell them for school funds.They have the plants delivered from a nursery. In garden club there were 5 girls. One girl sowed broad beans outside and also some in pots to fill gaps if any don't germinate. Another girl sowed courgetes in drinking cups.There were 6 cucumbers needed planting so 2 girls did those . The tomatoes were finished last week but we ran short of compost for the cucumbers. Thet also planted come onions and lettuces and sowed broad beans and radishes in their own plots. We have 2 weeks off now for half term
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Post by derekbrooks on May 23, 2013 21:50:13 GMT
Hanging baskets planted by life skills children
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Post by derekbrooks on May 23, 2013 21:52:47 GMT
Tomatoes all planted
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