"You will not be punished for your anger

You will be punished by your anger"

Buddha

 Storm Katie recently tore through the school garden at speeds of 80 mph. It was with some trepidation that the garden was visited on Monday afternoon.  Fearing the worst that the greenhouse would have been destroyed it was found not to be!  Only 5 panes of polycarbonate had been blown out.  Four were recovered from around the garden and a fifth had to made from spare material but within twenty minutes the greenhouse had been made secure again.

However Terry, our resident Pteranodon had suffered.  The violent winds had twisted the structure badly and a couple of the guys had snapped and the head  broken.

However work has started already to replace the head and we hope to have it restored by the weekend.

About the garden the improving weather has meant that the garden group can push on.  The Celeriac plants have been pricked out and potted up.  They will stay in the pots for a little longer until the time is right to plants them out.

The Celeriac plants

 In the greenhouse the warmth has produced a lot of growth in the plants within.  The Lithops (Living Stones) have started their annual transformation as the outer leaves die off and new ones grow from within. The plants must not be watered again until all the plants have grown the new leaves

Lithops

The insectivorous plants, Sundews and Venus fly-traps, have been replanted in a more bog like environment and they look healthy after their transplanting.

The Banana plants have made rapid growth over the past week,. 

In the grass garden the decorative minature tulips and Anemone blanda are in flower

Minature tulips

Anemone blanda

The surplus timber which the garden group have had stored against the neighbour's wall has now all be re-positioned on a purpose built trestle behind the sheds.  It is now out of sight.

The new timber store

The final job of the day was to tidy up the hose which had been on the ground.  New brackets were sourced and the hose is now wound in a tidy fashion safely out of the way.

The tidy hosepipe!

Finally there is to be a working party in the garden this Saturday April 2nd  from 12.00 till 16.00.  All welcome.  There is much to do from planting potatoes to painting up the bird hide, the fence and the garden sheds.  Do bring old clothes.   Tea and biscuits will be available! 

 

"The person who says that it cannot be done,

should not interrupt the person doing it"

A Chinese proverb.

Recent fine weather has meant that the garden group has been able to tackle a lot of outstanding jobs.  Wildlife too, has not been standing still and overnight the shallow end of the pond was full of frog spawn.  A lot of the tadpoles will be predated as they grow into small frogs and hopefully leave the pond to develop.  Twenty nine adult frogs were counted at one stage.

A few of the frogs

The mass of frog spawn.

The garden has four tit type nest boxes but one afternoon both Great tit and Blue Tit were investigating the same nest box.  The Great Tit will win for sure as it is a lot larger.  The Blue Tits can use the box by the Woodland Walk where they usually nest.

Male Great Tit investigating the nest box

Minutes later a male Blue Tit was also investigating

The group were lucky to have a contact who had some rotting manure for free and a quick visit was made to collect twenty bags.  The compost should have been dug in at the end of the last year but the weather was not good for that. The manure has now all be spread and dug in on the vegetable beds.

The dung heap has a good view of the Fleet!

All loaded up

Spreading over the large edible garden bed

The World War 2 bed was also treated

It was also time to trim the Willow Classroom back to shape.  Over a year the willow can grow 6 to 8 feet so this needs to be trimmed back to encourage growth lower down.

The Willow Classroom regains its' shape

In the greenhouse one of the Echeveria plants has developed three flowering stems.  This is the first time that this plant has flowered and we await the flowers to see what they look like

The Echeveria plant

 Around the garden other flowers have appeared.  The beautiful Iris reticulata has flowered.  The blooms unfortunately do not last long.

Iris reticulata

In detail

The area containing the class beds also needed looking at as the planks which had served for many years were finally rotting. We sourced four very heavy untreated oak sleepers to replace them.  The sleepers should last for many years.

The new sleepers

The old rotting planks

Moving the heavy sleepers

Almost finished

Job done!

The sleepers will be left for a week to settle before they get bedded in properly.  The membrane and bark chips will then be back-filled


A new addition to the garden has been "Compo".  He appeared overnight and stands guardian to the property.

 It is hoped that the other redundant compost bins can be used in a similar way.  The garden group have got their thinking caps on!

The last of the daffodils to open and flower

Spring Cellandines in the pond area

The fossil signs have also been fixed to the Portland Stone mounts.  It is hoped that pupils will learn from them and be able to take rubbings as well.

Finally after many attempts to catch the intruder in the pond a stealth attack was made last friday afternoon and met with success.  The goldfish has been removed from the wildlife pond.  It has gone to a good home nearby!

Got you at last!

The garden group always welcome new helpers.  Please make yourselves known to the school office for contact details.

"Make thyself a craftsman in speech,

for thereby will you gain the upper hand"

Found written on a 3000yr old Egyptian Tomb


 The Garden Group continue to be busy when the weather allows.  The beautifully engraved fossils have now been positioned and firmly fixed to Portland Stone bases.  Information and species identification signs are being produced and should be in place for the start of half-term.

The Ichthyosaur  mounted on Portland Stone

We recently took delivery of a Ginkgo biloba or Maidenhair tree.  This tree is over 200m year old and featured in the Jurassic landscape.  It has survived since then and the group managed to purchase a fine eight foot specimen.  The planting of it though, was not so straightforward.  About one foot under the soil we found the remains of one of the asphalt paths from the old school nursery site.  A large sledgehammer and crowbar shifted the offending material and the tree was planted with plenty of compost and grit to keep it free draining

The Ginkgo biloba tree

The mass of the old asphalt path!

With the advent of colder nights it was decided to take precautionary measures and protect the two tree ferns with some horticultural fleece.  The fleece was wrapped around the topmost foot or so and then gathered together and placed in the crown of the trees.

The frost protected Tree Fern

The tetrapanax in the foreground does not seem to mind the cold nights

The pseudopanax also thrives in cool weather with fantastic shiny leaves

We were kindly given the option of collecting some self sown Echiums from our good friends over the wall.  A rescue mission was quickly mounted and the plants dug up, passed over the wall, and replanted in as quick as time as possible.. In all about 40 plants were retrieved.  We are very grateful to our neighbours for their generosity

Re-housed  Echiums

The Echium work station

Things are moving in the garden despite the cold snap.  The willow classroom is waking up and will soon need trimming to regain the igloo shape. 

Young willow leaves bursting out

Blue Crocus in flower

Chain fern frond slowly unfurling

Daffodil with visitor!

Cellandine flowers

White Crocus flowers

Tete-a tete daffodils

Skywards view of the Hazel catkins

Strange goings on last Sunday where a couple of members of the Garden Group were spotted drilling holes into the heels of a pair of old wellington boots.  What is going on there!

Finally on a serious note.  Somebody has released a goldfish into the school wildlife pond.  This could well have a disastrous effect on the insect life living in the pond. Small larvae including beautiful damselfly larvae will be effected but even more serious is the strong likelihood of bringing about the death of our frog population.  Oriental fish are known to assist with the spread of ranavirosis.


Researchers from Exeter University have recently urged people to stop filling water features with exotic fish after finding that ranavirosis, a disease that kills thousands of frogs each year, increases in their presence.


The presence of the goldfish may cause wild frogs to produce a particular stress hormone that reduces their immune function, and hence their ability to fight the disease.

A goldfish will eat everything available - tadpoles and insects - so there will be no wildlife left. Furthermore their excreta will alter the water quality.

The Group have worked hard to maintain a viable and productive wildlife pond in the garden.  We have 5 species of Dragonfly and 3 species of Damselfly breeding in it.  It would be catastrophic if all the hard work was done in vain. Ornamental ponds are for goldfish not wildlife ponds!

We are trying to catch the offending goldfish but it proving very difficult.  Perhaps 'incognito' would have the decency to discreetly remove it when no-one is looking!