Bit of a catch up.....

Firstly the good news.  The school garden now has water and electricity.  This week finally saw the installation of both of these utilities in the garden.  Both will prove handy.  Although we have some ten water butts scattered about the garden attached to every building  which helps to conserve water sometimes supplies do get low and now we will be able to deal with any shortage. The electricity will also be handy.  Working party helpers can now boil a kettle and brew a real cup of tea rather than bring flasks .  Also any DIY jobs which require drills and similar can now be executed much easier.

The electrical supply box before the water had been fixed

For security and safety reasons both the tap and electrical supply box will be made tamper-proof.

Elsewhere in the garden colour abounds. A random selection of photographs from some of the class beds shows vivid colour and form

Over the week some more bee species have been identified and also this Lesser Stag Beetle was found on a rotting log

In the greenhouse the vines and creepers are going well. On the Canary Creeper leaf mines were very obvious on the older leaves. It looks as if they were made by one of the moths of the Stigmatella group.  This is a large group but pictures of the leaf mines and the small larva are shown below

The Kiwi vine has produced flowers this year.  The garden group went around each flower with a paint brush hoping to pollinate them and perhaps helping the formation of Kiwi fruits.  Wonderful waxy looking flowers from pale pink to stark white.

Kiwi Vine flowers

The study of bees in the garden is becoming interesting with the search moving on to smaller bees as well as the larger and easier to identify bumble bees and cuckoo bees.  Bumble Bees store their collected pollen in baskets on their legs but the smaller bees often store pollen underneath their abdomen.  The insect has a 'brush' on the underside of the abdomen which it rubs across the flower head and the pollen sticks over the abdomen.  The picture below shows just such a bee with a 'brush'- it was subdued a little by keeping it in a cool place for a little while so that it could be identified

Recent art contributions to the garden from the school included this magnificent daffodil.

Finally in one of the bee houses things are afoot.  Lifting the lid recently revealed bee larvae and several cells.  In the cells shown which were built up against the plastic cover bee larvae can be seen. One is developing into a grub and in a cocoon. In some cells stored pollen can be seen.  The identity of these bees is still a mystery but we hope to solve that shortly.

There will be a working party this Saturday to help get the garden ready for the NGS open days at the end of July. All are welcome and we shall be celebrating the end of the day with a BBQ.  All welcome.  Meet 14.00 hrs at the school garden. Further details from the school office