"Those who get lost on their way to school..

..will never find their way through life"

A German proverb

Work in the garden continues despite the shorter days.  The group has been making the most of the many leaves which have been shed from the sycamore trees around the garden.  They have been regularly swept up and bagged up and stored behind the eco-loo.  Over twelve months or so the leaves should turn into a useful compost.  We did similar last year and that compost has now been spread over many of the beds.

All swept up!

Bagged up

Stored out of the way

At the Memory Garden the paperbark birch trees are shedding their outer coat of bark. This is always a spectacular sight. The trees are growing well now since the large nearby Viburnum bush  was taken out.  The Viburnum was shielding a lot of light from the trees but now they are sorting themselves out.

The Celeriac plants are almost ready to harvest.  They were very slow growing and took a while to establish but now over the Christmas period we can enjoy this delicious vegetable roasted in the oven. The taste is quite exquisite!

The Celeriac plants

The major project after Christmas will be the pond.  A lot of vegetation needs to be removed and the the bank taken back.  Although the tall plants look impressive during the summer months they do keep light away from the pond.  Some rogue willow has also self seeded. This last year we were plagued with thick green algae which is not desireable.  By removing a lot of vegetation we will open up water which will help dragonflies and damselflies next year find suitable places to breed and also enable pond skaters and water boatman to swim freely.   The pond is also covered in duckweed which arrived mysteriously.  This also has a long term harmful effect as it carpets the water surface.  There is a lot to do but in the Spring the results should be beneficial!

The pond- now in need of a lot of attention!

 Flowers still hang on in the garden.  The purple Agastache is still flowering although there are very few insects still about to make use of it.  However a couple of late flying buff-tailed bumble bees are still on the wing.  A lone Penstemon is also still flowering.

Penstemon

Agastache

It is also a time to start digging over the beds and let the weather break down any vegetable matter.  The worms also help with this process.  Most of the class beds have been dug over now and work started last weekend on the edible beds around the summer house.

Digging over the old Sweet Corn patch

Finally it is announced that the Christmas Carol service held annually  in the School Garden has been unfortunately cancelled this year.  We hope that it will return in 2016!