"Climb the mountain so that you can see the world..

...not so that the world can see you"

An old Chinese proverb

During half term essential repairs were continued and work started to make good and prepare the garden for the Spring.

The wind turbine repair was finished thanks to our good friends Chesterton and Matthews in Old Parish Lane who  supplied two lengths of 9ft scaffold pipe and two clamps. The turbine should now stand up to a very severe gale!

The scaffolding is clamped to the turbine post

The finished work- properly braced against the weather

Back in action!

Work was carried out behind the garden toilet. The water butts had slipped off of their pedestals and the area needed tidying up. The butts were laid on some paving slabs and refitted to the down pipe on the toilet. All was working well when we left and water was running into the system.

The water butts made good again

A general tidying up of the area was also made

The tangled web of Brambles and Ivy which had encroached around the water butts has been removed.

The first frogspawn of the year was noted in the pond on Thursday February 8th. Over the next week a considerable amount of spawn had been laid and a maximum count of 63 frogs were counted. Some activity was still noted on the 18th although the number of frogs in the pond had considerably dropped off. There are a lot of frog pictures and we make no apology for this!

Further evidence that Spring is approaching .  The garden is coming back to life after what seemed to be a very long winter

Hazel catkins

Early Crocus flowers

Crocus close up

Tete-a-tete daffodils in the raised bed

A single blue Crocus

Finally a recent discovery in the Jurassic garden has been further explored by year 3.  Just what else is lurking in the garden and waiting to be discovered!

The recent excavation in the Jurassic Garden

A formidable looking creature!

The garden group always welcomes new helpers.  If you are interested in helping  please leave your name in the school office and we can get in touch with you.

"Fast is fine...

but accuracy is everything"

Xenophon - a 4th century Historian, philosopher, and soldier. A follower of Plato and a student of Socrates.

The storms which hit Weymouth during January left their mark in the school garden. Storm Dylan inflicted the worst damage though. The tetrapanix had all of its' leaves stripped off and now looks a little sad but new leaves will sprout once the weather warms up.

The leaf scars on the tetrapanax trunk

At the other end of the garden the fierce winds ripped the roofing felt off of the tool shed to reveal some rotten wood underneath.  The roof frame had to be repaired before new felt was positioned.

The exposed shed roof once the felt was removed

Rotten timber

Even worse rotten timber!

New felt and timber was sourced and the repair undertaken in one afternoon so as to keep the shed watertight.

Old rotten wood being removed and replaced

Carefully measuring out the roof felt

The first layer safely it situ

The view from the top!

The roof made good again!

Spring flowers have come early again this year.  The Pulmonaria- much favoured by early waking bees is in profusion around the garden.

Pulmonaria

Early daffodils

More daffodils

 The daffodils seem to flower earlier and earlier as the years go by.

The first crocuses in flower- again favoured by bumble bees

Another project undertaken was the repair of the wind vane/ power generator . The blades had two fractures in them and were causing imbalance. The whole thing was carefully taken down, serviced then repaired and re-positioned in one afternoon.

Carefully lowered

Cleaned and serviced

The fracture awaiting repair

Re-positioned as the sun was setting

Temporary bracing till next weekend when a more permanent fix will be made

The 'paper bark' birch tree looking resplendent in the winter sunshine

Tree ferns all wrapped up to protect the crown from frost

Finally the Corsican Hellabore is in flower.  This magnificent plant was given to us by our friends from Abbotsbury Gardens and it is thriving well.

Corsican Hellabore

Work continues during the winter period and the pond area is the next on the list. Alien plants are smothering the native ones around the pond edges and this needs to be sorted! Our bees and hoverflies prefer native species and are often specialists to just a single plant genus- the campanula bee - at just 4mm long- is a good example of this.  Unknown in the garden until we introduced suitable plants it has now been recorded many times.