"In criticising......

the teacher is only trying to teach. That's all!"

A Tibetan proverb

Work continued over the weekend on the Jurassic Garden. With the four scaffold poles now firmly concreted in the next stage was to drill holes in the top of them and fix stainless steel bolts to secure the block and clip on the pulley wheels ready to hold the giant Pterodactyl

Pulley wheel in position at the top of the pole

Once this task was done the group started to tidy up the last bit of the Jurassic Garden.  The pile of old timbers were sorted and stacked elsewhere to be used another day.  Timbers not thought useful were put to one side to be recycled.  After this the area was dug over and then a special drench hose was buried in the area ready to assist in drier weather with the aim of keeping the fern and other plants damp once planted up.

Stacked and sorted timbers

The drench hose ready to be buried

The hose in position and the ground leveled

Timber for recycling

The cleared area is now ready to be planted up at the end of March.  We have been given a few luxuriant plants and these are held ready in the greenhouse but we will need more funding for a lot more plants- in particular some magnificent tree ferns.  We also need a Ginkgo tree and plenty of tall shuttlecock ferns. These do not come cheap!

Around the garden a Peacock butterfly was spotted and another Buff-tailed Bumblebee was on the wing. Some of the smaller bulbs planted in the grass are starting to wake up.

Our first Crocuses of the year

A delightful fungus- possibly Pezeza cerea

Snowdrops showing in the Memory Garden

Newly planted ferns in the wall

Stunning dead heads of the Globe Artichoke flowers

The head in close-up

At the end of the day an intrepid tree climber scaled the large sycamore tree which is the centre point of the Jurassic Garden and kindly took a few pictures for us.  It gave yet another dimension on the school garden.

The Ammonite shape from vertically above

The dinosaur nest area- where the pterodactyl will be postioned

Looking up the garden

Towards the Eco-loo

In two weeks it is hoped to arrange delivery of the final top layer of crushed stone to finish off the whole area.With bees and butterflies on the wings we are now looking forward to Spring!