school garden

school garden

Friday 27 April 2012

IF.................

"If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds' worth of distance run...."

Rudyard Kipling






New pigeon defences


Can we forgive the pigeons? They are testing us considerably at the moment.  The second sowing of wheat, barley and oats was doing well until the pigeons again swooped in!  Trampling down the net they have grazed the tender young shoots for the second time.  A new metal cage  has been constructed which hopefully will save the third sowing from destruction.


In the greenhouse that cactus plant continues to flower in profusion.



Also in the greenhouse you may have noticed many small plants pricked out and laid out in trays on the tables.  These plants will provide the Gardening Club with one of their secret floral displays for this year

The Gardening Club secret project

Last weekend during a working party our young naturalist was delighted with this find. The first one for the year

Our first Slow-worm record for 2012

Finally the Living Stones have just about finished  growing their new leaves and the old shrivelled ones can easily be seen on the edges of the plant.  Today they received their first drink since October last year. They must be kept dry during the winter months but a small "shower" of water was applied this afternoon to refresh the plants

The Living Stones with their new leaves

The Day The Engineers Came to Help

It has been a particularly seasonal week in the garden with the weather being very Aprilish as it used to be before the last few years when summer seemed to arrive in April and depart by June. However, there was rather too rain on Monday when the Royal Engineers and US Air Force National Guard Engineers turned up to install the Natsol Composting Toilet tank that was delivered the previous Friday.
The unloading of the 1 tonne tank
Army JCB Digger (backhoe loader said the Americans)

15 personnel arrived at 8.00  and within half an hour had unloaded tents and supplies. The rain at this time was torrential but not perturbed the team donned hard hats and the ubiquitous hi vis waistcoats and set to work clearing barrow loads of rubble, broken bricks and slabs before the serious work of digging the hole began. I missed the hole digging as I had to attend a meeting but came back at 11.00 to find the hole dug and everyone looking very wet and muddy.
A very damp US Engineer in a bit of a hole
Once the hole was dug concrete was shoveled in and levelled and then the task of swinging the tank into place commenced.




And after much manoeuvring it was in.


Next a smaller hole was dug to the side to accommodate the soak-a-way which will take the urine.



Finally the lid of the tank was lifted into place.


The whole job was carried out under the supervision of Pete who made sure everything was carried out according to instructions.

It all met with the approval of the Commanding Officers.

And finally a group photo




Saturday 14 April 2012

The Pigeons are back......

The pigeons have recently carried out a daring daylight raid on the garden.  The wheat, barley and oat seeds which had successfully germinated have been pulled up and eaten by these ever hungry birds

The uprooted oat plants

Yesterday the area was re-seeded with new sowings of wheat, barley and oats.  This time a net was set over the seeds which will hopefully deter the pigeons.  Two birds sat in the tree watching so we will have to await events

The resown wheat, barley and oats-  and the net!

In the greenhouse one of the cactii is in flower. It seems to produce just one small pink flower a day and the flower only lasts for a day. Plenty of flowers yet to appear so some should be still showing on the return of the new term. Visit when the sun is out

The flowering cactus plant

Also in the greenhouse Class 3P is having success with the sunflower seeds. They have germinated over the Easter holiday and are  looking good.  Outside Class 2P is having success with their potato plants.  The pigeons do not like these!

Class 3P sunflower plants




The potato patch of Class 2P

Flowers on the Cherry tree


A sure sign of summer and better things to come.  The Cherry trees are bursting into flower. Already the bees have found them.  Several large bumble bees were busy pollen gathering

Finally one of the nest boxes has new tenants. A pair of Blue Tits are bulding a nest in the green nest box near the archway into the bird feeding area.  The pair were busy yesterday.  We will have to hope that things go well for them.

The Blue Tit nest