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Post by Cherry on Mar 23, 2012 8:53:02 GMT
It is a shame I can't see it. Visitors are an encouragement to the schoolchildren as well. I used to be the school gardener at the school opposite my old house. I loved it and because it came on really well, the council gardeners helped to make it a showpiece and gave me hanging baskets, etc. I was also given tubs for the school as 'leaving' presents from a couple of children going on to secondary.
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Post by derekbrooks on Mar 29, 2012 22:07:09 GMT
Today the "life skills"children just did some weeding and tidying up on one of the feature beds. With the garden club children we began the vegetable sowing and planting plan. We have four veg beds where we grow crops on a four year crop rotation like I do on my allotment. I made this plan out about 4 years ago to grow the plants to put in these beds. I had to arrange it so that crops were ready for harvesting either in June or July or not till September because the school is closed all August.The plan has worked fairly well .I have just made small changes some years that I thought would improve it. Today we have planted onion sets ,sown cabbages and peas all in drinking cups and sown lettuce in cell trays.
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Post by derekbrooks on Mar 30, 2012 20:41:40 GMT
Forgot to mention yesterday that all the garden club children took home 3 or 4 sticks of rhubarb.We have two weeks off now.
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Post by derekbrooks on Apr 19, 2012 19:29:19 GMT
Went to school for the first time since the Easter break but there was no after school garden club ,just the life skills class 2.30 till 3.30. I have told you before about the sowing and planting plan that I made for the four veg beds.We have been following it for 3 or 4 years with slight ammendments.Dates have to be altered sometimes depending when Easter holidays are.I had to organise it so that crops would not need harvesting in August during the long holidays.So they needed to be ready in June or July or not till September.One job today was to plant potatoes .These should be ready to dig up in July.We also sowed some calabrese in drinking cups.This should also be ready in July.
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Post by derekbrooks on Apr 26, 2012 21:25:33 GMT
Today there was both the "life skills"class and the after school garden club.It was raining all the time,hard at times so it,s a good job we planted the potatoes last week.Fortunately all todays jobs were in the polytunnel.I told you about the sowing and planting plan that I made out but Gina wants the garden club children to do those jobs. The life skills children each planted an onion set in a drinking cup.Gina showed them those that were planted a few weeks ago which were growing well and told them that when theirs had grown like that they could take them home and plant them in their own gardens.She had them designing and making posters.Some of them didn't like drawing but there wasn't anything else for them to do. The garden club children were all different than last term.There wer so many children wanting to do gardening that they had to be split into two groups.The children that were in garden club last term will come in again in two months time. The jobs they did today were sowing more lettuce in cell trays,and sowing leeks,chard and sweet corn in drinking cups. I also showed some of the how to prick out seedlings.Gina had sown some poppies in a tray and they transfered them to two other trays.
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Post by derekbrooks on May 2, 2012 22:02:16 GMT
This morning I took 2 , 75 litre bags of potting compost to school for the tomatoes. We grow them in square pots about 9 inches square. I didn't know how much compost we would need (I should have made a note last year) so I decided to fill some pots and these two bags filled 14 of them. I took 28 plants there about 2 weeks ago so it means we will need another two bags so I will get more on Saturday.I then took some compost out of these pots so that they are about two thirds full which is the correct depth for planting,and put it in other pots.There are now 21 pots two thirds full.The children can put the plants on top of this compost then fill the pots up.The planting won't be done tomorrow though because the weather forecast is good and there are some outdoor jobs to do.They can wait till the week after but I just wanted to know how much compost we would need then I could have it ready.
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Post by Cherry on May 3, 2012 8:00:31 GMT
It is marvellous how you get the children to do quite a lot themselves. I know it is tedious and would be quicker on your own, but then that is not teaching.
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Post by derekbrooks on May 3, 2012 21:12:41 GMT
This afternoon Gina had some of the "life skills"children (the girls)trimming the grass on "Fred the head" .Steve,the caretaker borrowed the boys to help him shift some wood chip. They didn't need me to help with either of these jobs so I got the veg beds ready for planting.I hoed and raked the root crop bed getting the soil as fine as I could for sowing.One bed has got potatoes in but the other two beds just wanted forking over and a few weeds taking out. When the garden club children (all girls ) came at 3.30 two of them helped me to sow the root crop bed.I just made the drills and let the girls sow the seeds .They labeled each row as they finished them.We did two rows each of swedes,turnips,beetroot and carrots and three of radish.The rest of the girls weeded and tidied up their own beds.
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Post by derekbrooks on May 9, 2012 21:10:54 GMT
Went to school this morning with two more bags of potting compost and four growbags.We are hoping to plant the tomato plants tomorrow so I wanted to have the compost there ready.I worked out last week that we would need another two bags.The growbags are to grow peppers in.I have ordered some peppers and cucumbers from Dobies but they haven't come yet. There were six bags of potatoes in the polytunnel and Gina helped me to move them outside because we will need the room for the tomatoes
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Post by derekbrooks on May 10, 2012 21:27:33 GMT
The boys in the "life skills"class were working with Steve,the caretaker and the girls were doing pond dipping with Gina.So,I was not needed again so I planted my own tomato plants.I just grow 8 plants in bottomless pots on top of growbags,two on each.They are Cederico. In garden club there were 5 girls.One of them sowed cauliflowers in 15 drinking cups.Two of them sowed French beans in drinking cups .Each of them did 15 .The other two were planting tomatoes. There were 34 plants which I had grown from seed of two varieties,Alicante and Gardeners delight.They are grown in 9 inch square pots which Gina and myself had partly filled yesterday.When the other girls had finished their sowing they helped with the tomatoes as well.
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Post by derekbrooks on May 17, 2012 22:22:57 GMT
There have been some foxes seen on the school playing fields so there was some concern about the chickens.The life skills children worked with Steve,(the caretaker) and Gina to put some extra wire netting round the chicken pen .They burried the bottom part so that foxes couldn't burrow under it. While they were doing this I put 3 foot canes on the tomato plants and tied them up.There wer not enough decent canes at school so I nipped home for some. With the garden club children we sowed some broad beans .One girl sowed some direct on the plot while another sowed some in pots to plant if any sown outside don't germinate.I took some yellow tomato plants just to show children that tomatoes are not all red.Another girl planted these.We also planted out some onion sets that had been started off in pots.It only needed three children to do these jobs so the others did pond dipping with Gina.
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Post by Cherry on May 18, 2012 7:46:04 GMT
You probably are not allowed to photograph the children doing their gardening, but when the garden is looking good, you might take your camera in to school Derek.
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Post by derekbrooks on May 18, 2012 21:01:56 GMT
I do take my camera to school every week,Cherry,and take pictures of the children gardening.I am writing a few articles about the school garden for the National Vegetable Society to put in their quarterly magazine.They put the first article in the April issue.It was an introductory article telling how the garden begun and showing pictures of the beds and other features and a plan of the whole garden and they told about the crop rotation and the sowing and planting plan that I worked out. There were no pictures with children on though. Future articles will have children on showing them growing and harvesting the crops but I have to obtain parents permission .When I think I have taken enough pictures for an article I will print them out and show the headmistress .She will see who the children are and write to the parents. There was an article about the school garden in the Garden Answers magazine with children on last year and I had to go through this proceedure for that. I won't be allowed to show children on this forum though.
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Post by derekbrooks on May 24, 2012 22:04:43 GMT
Today I wasn't needed to help with "life skills "because the children were doing other things ,not gardening.I thinned out the rows of swedes and turnips which have germinated very well ,and side shooted the tomatoes,which are also growing well. In gardening club we sowed some courgetes in pots. I grew all the tomato plants myself but I ordered 6 cucumbers, 6 sweet peppers and 5 chillies from Dobies.These had all arrived but I have decided to keep the cucumbers at home and grow them on a bit before planting them in their final pots.The children planted the peppers and chilies today in grow bags ,two or three per bag. We have two weeks holiday now for half term
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Post by derekbrooks on May 25, 2012 22:12:33 GMT
I am going to show you some pictures taken at school yesterday
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