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Post by Cherry on Jun 21, 2012 21:10:23 GMT
That is all difficult stuff for the children to learn. Is it all age dependent? Lettuces and radish for the young ones and cabbages when they grow up.
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Post by derekbrooks on Jul 5, 2012 21:28:46 GMT
New scarecrows at school
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Post by derekbrooks on Jul 5, 2012 22:16:04 GMT
I thought I would show you these new scarecrows first.Gina made them but children drew the faces.They were entered in a scarecrow competition at a flower festival at St. Pauls church and won.Then they were brought back to school. There was no "life skills"class today so I wasn't needed till the garden club at 3.30.There was none last week and there was some confusion about whether there was one today because only one girl turned up.Gina was thinking of cancelling it and phoning the girls mother to ask her to come to take her home.However,the girl wanted to do it even though she was the only one.I asked her if she liked gardening."Yes" she said."My dad grows vegetables and I help him". We must encourage girls like her.So we went down to the gardens and Gina gave her some courgetes and lettuce to plant.I showed her how to do it and how deep to make the holes and left her to carry on with Gina watching her. I have been growing some potatoes in three bags for the N.V.S.stand at the R.H.S.show at Tatton Park.I started them off in the school polytunnel to get them growing early and get a head start.They were put outside when the tomatoes were planted .I had inended to go in one day next week to harvest them because they are needed the following weekend.However ,because there was only one girl today and I didn,t need to stand watching her all the time I started removing these potatoes from the bags and I stayed behind after to finish them and brought them home.The yield was ,I thought,very good. There is no more gardening at school now till September.Next Thursday is the last meeting of the garden club this term but we are just having a party.Yum Yum
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Post by grindle on Jul 6, 2012 3:49:59 GMT
they look great Derek, I bet they had fun making them
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Post by Tel on Jul 6, 2012 6:35:39 GMT
They certainly are eye catching.
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Post by twiams on Jul 6, 2012 11:44:01 GMT
Awesome scarecrows !
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Post by derekbrooks on Sept 20, 2012 21:24:44 GMT
School started about 2 weeks ago after the summer holidays but the "life skills"gardening class didn't start till today.This takes place from 2.30 till 3.30. The after school garden club doesn't start till next Thursday. There were six children today and none of them had done gardening before. As usual, with them being new to gardening they had to have a health and safety talk first ,all about the safe use of tools.The rest of the time was spent just showing them round the gardens and the different vegetables growing in them.There were a lot of broad beans ready so I picked them and they were all given a bag of them to take home. I had to explain to them the difference between broad beans where you only eat the beans and runner beans where you eat the pods.
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Post by derekbrooks on Sept 25, 2012 22:00:18 GMT
I told you last week that the garden club was starting this week as well as the "life skills"class. Gina phoned me today to tell me that neither class was on this week because the children were going on a trip somewhere.
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Post by derekbrooks on Oct 4, 2012 21:39:53 GMT
Today the life skills class continued after a weeks break and the after school garden club met for the first time this term. There were 5 children in life skills .Two of them did pond dipping and the other three worked with me for half an hour then they swopped over.I took some winter onion sets to plant.We have 4 veg beds which are planted in a 4 year rotation plan just as I do on my allotment.I always plant my winter onions in the bed which will be the root crop bed the following year so that is what we did at school today. This is because this bed will be the last that needs digging over to get ready for sowing next year so it will give the onions more time to grow.The reason is that the other three beds will be manured in the winter and the root crop bed is not manured.Before they could be planted we had to harvest some silver kale that was in the bed and weed it. Then some growmore was raked in and three rows of onions were planted 6 inches apart. The children were allowed to take the kale home. There were six children in garden club,all girls.Two of them had not done gardening before so they had to have the usual health and safety talk.They were all given their own small plots and spent the rest of the time weeding them.
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Post by derekbrooks on Oct 4, 2012 21:48:55 GMT
Silver kale harvested
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Post by derekbrooks on Oct 13, 2012 21:15:54 GMT
Last Thursday there was no after school garden club,just the life skills class.We made another bug hotel from an old wine rack.The children had to cut up willow sticks to the right length and fit them into bottles to put in the rack.
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Post by derekbrooks on Oct 18, 2012 19:54:15 GMT
I had a phone call from the secretary ay school yesterday saying that Gina,the lady who I help to do the gardening,had broken a bone in her foot.She was therefore off school and the after school garden club today had been cancelled .I just went at 2.30 to do the life skills class.There were six children.There were some calabrese plants that had finished cropping and some cabbages that had not grown properly.Some of the children got rid of these and then weeded and forked over the bed.Steve,the caretaker ,had picked the rest of the broad beans and pulled up the plants and there were some courgetes on this bed that had finished.Some of the other children got rid of these and weeded and forked over the bed.So that was two of the four beds weeded and dug.There were runner beans growing on two wigwams on a spare plot.The other two children picked the rest of these and entangled the plants from the wigwams.
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Post by derekbrooks on Oct 25, 2012 22:06:26 GMT
Gina was back at school today but hobbling about and couldn't do any gardening.There was therefore no after school garden club,just the "life skills"class. The children picked all the remaining tomatoes and we cut down all the plants.and removed the canes.We put the plants into wheel barrows and wheeled them to the compost bins.We then began emptying the pots into barrows but didn,t get time to finish .Gina wants the compost putting on the herb garden but we didn't have time to take it. We have a week off next week for half term.
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 8, 2012 21:50:33 GMT
Garden club started again today after the half term holiday.There was no "life skills"class which normally takes place from 2.30 till 3.30 but Gina phoned me yesterday and asked me if I could still go at 2.30.because she had got some fruit trees for the garden club children to plant and if I could dig the holes it would save time. We are making a mini -orchard and she had got 3 apple trees,3 pear and 3 plum.They were all the same variety though and I wish she had got three different varieties of each.It would have been more interesting and also I am a bit concerned about the pollination.The plums are Victoria which is self fertile but the apples are Elstar and the pears Doyenne du Comice neither of which are self fertile.There are several apple and pear trees on the allotments which run alongside so I hope they will pollinate from these. I marked the position of the trees and removed a circle of turf from each but I had only time to dig four holes before the garden club children came out. There were five children and there was only one boy who had done gardening before. The other four went with Gina for the usual health and safety lesson and she then showed them round the gardens. I therefore just worked with the one boy,Declan,.When I dug the holes a spade deep it was solid clay underneath.I broke this up with a fork but I left one just to show Declan the solid clay and explained that the tree roots would have difficulty growing into it.I decided that we would mix some compost from the tomato pots with the soil and also some bone meal before we filled up the holes.I explained to him that they were grafted onto a rootstock and they need to be planted with the union level with the top of the soil.Declan unwrapped the trees and I held them in the holes while he put the soil mixture back in the holes. We just had time to plant the four trees so the others will be done next week ,weather permitting.
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Post by derekbrooks on Nov 15, 2012 21:29:34 GMT
I told you last week that we had got 9 fruit trees to plant and that 4 had been planted. I thought we would be planting the rest today.We had no stakes last week so I had got 9 from our hut and took them and also 3 kilos of bonemeal from the hut(I used some of my own bone meal last week).For the other 5 trees I had planned to put the stakes in first because I think this is the best way.Again there was no "life skills"class at 2.30 but I still went at this time then I could dig the other 5 holes to save time before the garden club at 3.30. Anyway when I got to school I was disappointed to be told that Steve(the caretaker) had planted the rest of the trees.He thought he was doing us a favour but he had put no bonemeal or any other fertiliser in the holes and no compost like I did last week. Also I wanted to show the rest of the children who I had not worked with last week the correct way to plant trees.I put all the stakes in and secured the trees to them.I spent the rest of the time till 3.30 weeding and forking over some of the spare beds. When the garden club children came out at 3.30 ,4 children worked with Gina planting daffodils in small pots ,enough for all the gardening children ,the idea being that they would take them home on mothers day next year when hopefully they may be flowering.Two boys worked with me and we finished emptying the pots and growbags that had grown tomatoes and peppers .We tipped them into a barrow and removed the plant roots.Gina wanted the compost taking to the herb garden which was about 100 yards away and the lads argued because they both wanted to wheel the barrow so they did it in turns and I gave them both a ride back in it . This is the last gardening at school this year .Next week we are having a party and after that the children will be practicing for school concerts.
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