Education....

“Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.”

Socrates

The garden group met early this morning to take advantage of the good weather. The first job was to empty a compost bin and distribute the contents on the runner bean bed.  The compost was dug into  a trench under the soil.  This will help retain moisture later in the year and help the plants grow steadily and also help to beans to set- providing the bees have done their work first!

Our own compost!

An hour later- the canes are up and the seeds sown

In the other corner  the Memory Garden was given a make over after the storms of February when the blackboard was damaged and the the strings holding the pegs to the hanging sticks were frayed badly.

In the greenhouse the rice plants were pricked out and placed in our paddy field.  We grew rice two years ago with great success. We are hoping to repeat this success this year. 

The paddy field

Alongside the rice we potted on our five tea bushes.  These were grown from seeds in the propagator and are related to Camelias.  We hope that after spending the first year in the greenhouse we can plant them out into the garden and they will grow into decent bushes.  The idea of picking our own tea sounds good!

The five tea plants

Close up of the tea plant

We are watching the pitcher plants which have flowering stems on them.  One flower is almost fully open.  A strange looking flower which is hard to photograph

The pitcher plant flower from underneath!

The Amelanchier is in flower.  It has delicate white flowers which unfortunately do not last very long.

Amelanchier

Several artificial bee nests were installed. 7mm diameter straws will hopefully  entice the bees to nest- probably the red mason bee Osmia rufa. These bees nest successfully in the small bamboos which have put up for them.  Smaller tubes made  from reed stems will be erected shortly for smaller species of bees.

Artificial bee nest site

Colour is still prevalent in the garden as the wall flowers go past their best and the summer flowers start to appear

Finally as the garden group finished for the day with a mug of tea the coastguard helicopter made a few low passes over the garden. Perhaps they had heard that the kettle was on!

The coastguard helicopter