school-garden

FINAL WEEK IN THE GARDEN FOR FORMS 1 & 2

28 JUNE 2010

Look at our beautiful sunflower. It is the first one to flower. We picked the rest of our lettuce today. Don’t they look good?
After we picked the lettuce we had room to plant our broccoli and brussel sprout plants. They will grow over the summer along with our parsnips, leeks and carrots. We even had our first carrots today. They are tiny but very carroty! We are looking forward to coming back and having things to harvest during Autumn and Winter.

As promised another bumper crop of lettuce for Form 2. Mrs Trench’s class this time. Form 2 planted some broccoli today and weeded their box. They are hoping for a good crop of parsnips when they come back to school after the summer break.

Well done to both Form 1 and 2 gardeners. You have had a very productive term and I have enjoyed very much my time spent in the garden with you all. Keep gardening and see you in September. Mrs McCrae

Form 2

Form 2

FORMS 1 & 2 SOWING AND PLANTING

14 JUNE 2010

Week 7 in the Garden for Form 1 and 2
Both classes were busy this week planting primulas for next Spring. We also sowed some wild flower seed at the front of our plots so hopefully we will have a lovely display this summer to attract butterflies and bees.
Our strawberries are beginning to grow so we covered them with net to stop the birds eating them and as always we did lots of weeding and watering.

FORMS 1 & 2 PLANT COURGETTE AND SQUASH

07 JUNE 2010

Week 6 in the Garden for Form 1 and 2
Isn’t our garden doing well?
We are very pleased with our lettuces and radishes and have had them for lunch a few times now. We even had enough to share with the transition class. Everyone thinks they are the best tasting lettuce ever! We planted two new plants this week, a courgette plant and a squash plant. Both need lots of manure to help them grow so we had to dig some into the soil before we planted them. As usual we did a lot of weeding. We now know the difference between a weed and our carrot and parsnip plants. We look very carefully and only pull out the weeds!

FORM 1 PLANT SUNFLOWERS

24 MAY 2010

Week 5 in the Garden for Form 1
Our job for this week was to plant our sunflowers but we all had to run for shelter in the shed when the rain came on. We waited for the rain to stop then went back to work. We each planted a sunflower and have put in a big cane to support it. We all hope our sunflowers will grow as tall as the canes.

Our lettuces were ready to pick so on Tuesday we cut some and we had enough for everyone in Form 1 and 2 to have lettuce with lunch. We all thought it was the best tasting lettuce ever and we can’t wait to pick more.

FORMS 1 & 2 PLANTING LEEKS

17 MAY 2010

Week 4 in the Garden for Form 1 and 2
Week 4 in the garden and haven’t our lettuces grown! No slugs have been eating them so hopefully we will be able to soon.
Our main job this week was to plant out our leeks. We all had to make a hole with a dibber and drop our leek in. We then watered the hole. Our leeks will take a long time to grow but we all hope to have a leek to take home in the winter term. Our other jobs this week were to thin out the radishes to give them room to grow and to sow carrot seed. We watered everything well and did a bit of weeding.

FORMS 1 & 2 - 1st SIGNS OF LIFE IN THE GARDEN

10 MAY 2010

Radishes!

Week 3 in the Garden for Form 1 and 2
Week 3 in the garden and things are beginning to happen. We were very excited to see that our spring onions and radishes have started to grow. We were also busy this week planting out our lettuces. Hopefully we will be able to start picking some of the leaves soon. We can’t wait to taste them. We made a slug trap just in case the slugs decide that our lettuces will make a tasty treat for them.

FORM 1 & 2 IN THE GARDEN

03 MAY 2010

Week 2 in the Garden for Form 1 and 2
We have been very busy this week making scarecrows to protect our plants when they start to grow. We don’t think they look very scary but we hope they will do a good job of frightening off the birds. We have to decide on names for our two new friends. We will let you know what we decide. As well as making scarecrows we did a spot of weeding. Then we sowed some radish seed and watered them well. So far we have sown parsnips, spring onions and planted potatoes. We are taking good care off them and are hoping to see some signs of things growing soon but we have to learn to be patient!!!

FORM 1 GARDENING

26 APRIL 2010

Form 1 will be spending every Monday afternoon up in the school garden tending to their new raised beds.
We are starting with a blank canvas and we are looking forward to seeing our plants developing as the term progresses. On Monday we planted potatoes, parsnips and Spring Onions. We also prepared a space for the leeks. Mrs McCrae put some manure on top of the soil and we forked it into the soil. This will help the soil and hopefully it will help us grow big leeks! Watch this space!

SUMMER & AUTUMN NEWS

NOVEMBER 2009

In September the Pre-school and Form 1 picked potatoes. The joy of discovering another and another was evident on the children’s faces.

The Wednesday Gardening Club has begun the task of preparing for the next crop, and has been working hard to keep the weeds under control and keep the compost bin filled.

The new Groundforce (part of the Eco- Committee) have been working hard all over the grounds but have been of particular help in maintaining the paths, and keeping them weed free and starting the huge task of edging the paths with bricks.

Eco Day on Friday 23rd October was a great success and all the children worked in the garden. They planted nearly five hundred bulbs, worked on edging the paths and began the renovation of the ornate iron gates.

The School has bought a huge amount of black plastic sheeting to cover the areas which have been set aside for vegetable growing and our fist batch of raised beds will be under construction soon.

There has been a lot of activity regarding the garden during the summer and autumn. We have so far applied for three different grants, but unfortunately we have been unsuccessful. As a consequence, we have tried a new tack. We have created a group of committed local gardeners. This new organisation which is called The Craigclowan Community Garden Group will really help to realise our dream of an organic, self sustaining garden at the school which will be a valuable resource for the pupils and parents of Craigclowan as well as strengthening our ties with the local community. Alex Rathborne deserves great credit for ensuring the formation and constitution of the group and taking on the onerous task of chairperson. If you would like to join the group please contact

Mark Dibnah at staffmdibnah@craigclowan-school.co.uk

The Craigclowan Community Garden Group