Strawberries

This week saw the first crop of strawberries from our garden.

There was a great deal of excitement and I had to intervene to stop every single strawberry being picked, ripe or not!  A few had succumbed to the slugs and snails that lurk in that area, but we had a nice bowl full.  The children excitedly dashed to Mrs Bailey's office to announce their find and she was unwittingly the official taster. She was very impressed!  The children had a taste themselves and despite sharing them with other people in school, had soon polished them off themselves.

Millie, Mia, Ben and Cobie show off our first strawberry crop

Caught you! Ben having a sneaky taste!

Hey, I've counted them, you know!

Wednesday 26th June

Been pond dipping this week. There's not a lot to do in the garden apart from fighting the weeds back and the kids are getting a bit fed up with that.  It's not that cool.

So the kids have discovered waterlice,water boatman, ramshorn snails and a worm like creature that we couldn't really identify.  The kids found it fascinating so its an activity I'll keep doing!

We had our first ripe strawberry this week as well.  It got cut up into about 8 pieces along with more radishes that are ready to harvest!  The strawberry plants are dripping in fruit, we just have to wait for the sun to come out and ripen them.  Hopefully, we'll be having strawberries and cream rather than an eighth of a strawberry!!

Another crazy week

A short blog this week.

We had a drop of welcomed rain in the last week and everything's gone crazy! The runner beans have sprouted, the carrots are getting there, the peas are spreading and Class 7 and Class 9's beds have gone into overdrive!

I took four lads up today, the first time since last Thursday (it's a long story) and feared a jungle and a couple of triffids, but instead we found these!

No, not big Year 5 boys, but RADISHES!

We planted a multicoloured pack in a bed and to our delight, there were several fat plump juicy ones. As you can see, there's white ones, red ones and purple ones.  The boys wanted to try them, so we had a scientific test where we tasted each one to find out if they tasted different as well as looked different. The boys were surprised with the spicy kick radishes have, but thought the white ones were the less spicy and the redder ones the best spicy taste.  They then tried to sell them to Mr Maldonado after he commented on them on passing "mmmm, I love radishes" and was chased back to his classroom! That's my boys!

It was a very hot day with a nice breeze and we did some more sowing in the garden, the inevitable weeding and tidying.  The boys tried to bargain with me to take them out every Wednesday, but I knew they were after only one thing - more radishes.

I'm just chuffed that somethings grown and we've had our first crop! 

Thursday 13th June

No, I haven't been on any trips this last week, but have been incredibly busy with other jobs as well as the garden, that I haven't had chance to blog. I hold my head in shame.

Well, its been a long week of battling the weeds, keeping the greenhouse plants watered and making sure that garden ticks over.  I feel rather guilty as I have been quietly praying for rain (us Brits are never happy with our weather - moan when it's cold and wet, and then when it's hot and sunny, we demand rain!)

I just want an nice overnight downpour to water the beds, then a nice 70 degrees worth of sunshine to encourage our plants to grow.  That would suit me down to the ground.

I had a "bang head against a wall" moment during the week.  Finally I purchased an basic irrigation system for the greenhouse tomato plants, and eventually plucked up the courage to open it and try and set it up. Faced with 71 pieces of colourful plastic bits and metres of tubing, a A4 piece of paper with instructions written in several languages and diagrams so microscopic that the most powerful microscope can't cope, I was doing quite well, when I read at the bottom of this sheet, that I needed a special component to attach the tubing to the hose and it's NOT INCLUDED!!!! Aaargh!

So the whole project had slithered to a halt while I wait for this part. I am not happy.

Today I took five children up who were just exceptionally keen and were running around, asking what was this plant and what was this called?  They were fascinated by the pond and eager to see our ducks, who unfortunately, found our little patch of water not so desirable and have disappeared.  Personally I blame Class 9 for scaring them off three weeks ago.  Anyway we ended up pond dipping for half an hour and discovered water boatmen, waterlouse and snails.  The kids loved it.  The pond has life, not the best, but its a start.  We had a lovely discussion about wildlife, meadows and global warming!! Amazing.

Sunny days are here again!

Yes, I'm back after a fortnight of silence.

Mrs Colefax looked after the seedlings on the last three days while I was on the Comenius project in Birmingham (read the International blog for that) and I diligently checked them during the Whitsun break.  The weather was cloudy and overcast for most of the holiday, so I could leave the watering for a couple of days, but this last week, we have been basking in 18 - 20 degrees (and making the most of it). So I was up every day, watering.

I have finally purchased a watering system and now need to find time to set it up and make sure it works.  It will certainly save me time visiting the garden during the school holidays!

Yesterday was spent knee deep in paperwork, reading the instructions on the watering system and advertising the Cookridge Horticultural Show to the children hoping that they will enter a lot of the classes on offer. Our vegetable basket always seems to do well, and we have entered the handwriting and art classes before, but I want a big push on it this year.  Not that I'm competitive.............

 Today the children and I went up to the garden and did a massive weeding session - unfortuantely weeds grow even better than the plants.  The plants themselves are finally celebrating the arrival of summer and are starting to grow quite briskly, rather than keeping low and stunted.  We seem to have zillions of peas and beans, but I was delighted to spy the first growth spurts of carrots and cabbages.  The garden still look quite bare, but on closer inspection, the veggies are there and pushing their way through.

The after school garden club is back on this afternoon and I have several jobs lined up including potting up some of our beans and selling them tomorrow with another batch of rhubarb.  It's all go here!

Planting out

Planting out the runner beans

Rowan hard at work

Robyn and Caitlin weeding and planting

Stanley, Kyle and Joshua planting peas

Good job there, Kyle!

We are having funny weather at the moment - cloudy and overcast, there's a chill in the morning (I had 4 layers on when I walked the dog at 6am), but during the day, it warms up considerably, though its that sticky humid heat that Britain seems to specialise in. But it's still cloudy, broody and overcast.

Mind you, the plants aren't complaining and seem to be in a rush to catch up. (Weeds included especially dandelions!).  Today, Joshua brought in a big bag of peas and asked if he could plant them in the garden which he did with Stanley and Kyle's help.  Robyn, Caitlin and Rowan planted the tiny bean plants we had grown in the polytunnel around the wigwams.

Later I had Sophie, Charlie, David and Antonio up who moved the flower planters up to the main entrance and planted another couple of big pots.  Hopefully, the front entrance will look pretty good, come high summer.  They then finished off the bean planting and tidied up.  Think we're on a level keel with the garden and I don't feel so frantic.  Think we need to go with the flow as we're in the hands of our unpredictable weather.  As long as I've got a few carrots and a bean to show in the Cookridge Show in September, I will be happy.

The garden blog will go quiet over the next couple of weeks.  Tomorrow I'm off to Birmingham for 5 days for the final Comenius project meeting (read all about it on the International Blog) and then it's Whitsun half term (already???).  Mrs Colefax has very kindly offered to water the greenhouse while I'm away and I'll be making little forays up too to keep everything ticking over.  I really must invest in a water system......

More pictures

The planters outisde Class 1

The entrance outisde the school

Katie and Libby



Weeding the berry patch



Class One planters

Outside our front door

Thank you, Mr Bird!

A huge thank you to Mr Paul Bird, who called in to look at our broken gate and dodgy polytunnel doors.  He just didn't look at them - before I knew it, he had his electric screwdriver in his hands and was quickly rehinging the door.  He had it done within 10 minutes!

So I can't thank him enough for making our garden neat and tidy and safe!  And all in his own time too. I can't imagine anybody else doing such a good job so quickly.  I'm very happy.

A lovely afternoon

Last night I went to my local Morrisons and bought lots of geraniums, marigolds and petunias - 2 boxes for £3.00 was a steal.

So this afternoon, I had a little gang armed with trowels and they set about planting the flowers in the planters in and around school.  To our delight, one of our mums, Mrs Johnson turned up to help too.

Later, we weeded the beds on the other side of the polytunnel.  This area tends to get rather neglected as it was set up as a blackberry/strawberry/blueberry and any type of berry area.  I really want to do some more with it, but just quite don't get there!

The children took great delight in scaring Mrs Johnson with worms and slimy snails.  There was a lot of laughter and squeals of delight.  I just hope Mrs Johnson comes back next week!

Thanks Mrs Johnson - the beds look fantastic!

Little Green Fingers After School Garden Club - photos

Planting carrots

The Club in full swing

The lettuce planting crew

The Weeding Crew

Champion planters

Tackling huge weeds

All hands on deck

Great teamwork, guys

Isn't it great?

Rain rain go away!

The British summer is NOT happening!

We've got gas fires on at night (I'm seriously thinking full central heating) and it doesn't stop raining!!!!

This morning, it rained most of the time and I was really starting to panic with what to do.  I don't want to go too mad as I've got After School Club (Little Greenfingers - yes, very original I know) to do this afternoon too.

The little tomato plants that our neighbour gave us were getting a bit too big for their pots, so we transplanted them into bigger pots.  Had two lads seiving the compost from the bins and the others filling the pots and planting the tomatoes.  My OCD came out as I had a tidy up and shifted things around - again.  Actually put the seed trays on the shelving that Ralph Thoresby put up last week!  Topped the water tank up with water - oh for a proper water system up there.  Any suggestions please, let me know!

Well, the Little Greenfingers Club is due to start so I'll sign off and see you soon.

The Weeds

Had a disgruntled lot today.

They saw the unglamourous side of gardening - weeding and they were not impressed.  We've got quite a few plant boxes around school that were happily cultivating weeds and looking quite grim.  After dragging several bags of rubbish to the school rubbish bin, we set about the plant boxes and despite my encouraging words of how much better it looked, the boys remained unsold on weeding.

So I made them do some hard labour instead, by taking some flower pots with Mrs Wright's daisies in them up to the front entrance.  I'm trying my best to reach Mrs Whitely's dizzying display last summer, but it's not going to be the same.  Of course, the wheelbarrow came out and their faces lit up and the enthusiasm returned. Phew!

The next group grabbed spades and trowels and we headed into the Reception class.  They have a small bit of ground that was equally neglected as our planters, but the kids dug it over and tidied it all up.  Later we gave the teachers some seeds to plant too.

A good afternoon with a lot done!

Ralph Thoresby High School Enrichment Day

Today, a group of Year 9 pupils from our local High School joined us in the garden all day as part of their Enrichment Day programme. The pupils go out into the community and do various activities.  Ralph Thoresby joined us last year in the garden, so we decided to work together again.

The morning was spent with just their group, some of them being ex-Cookridge pupils and I had a list for them. Move two unsightly and totally defunct tanks from the front of the garden, where everybody can see them; to make pea frames from our Olympic puppets which have been languishing in the corner; turn our compost bins and to construct some shelving that we bought about 18 months ago and never quite got to opening the packaging.

The kids were brilliant. They set about the jobs with enthusiasm and the boys started by hoisting the horrible tanks to behind the greenhouse and out of sight. Then they turned their attention to a couple of beds, setting in a couple of sturdy wooden posts and dealing with the chicken wire puppets. The  boys then moved onto the compost bins and got two turned.  One lad decided that our scarecrows were looking a bit forlorn and set about giving them a make-over. One now even stands up!

All this hard work, allowed me to sort out the wood box which is full of bits of odds and ends (I could do a firewood sale here), the boys had stacked up the pallets from the tanks in a corner, so all the sticks, old bamboo canes and other debris I found, I stuffed into the pallets to make a bug hotel.  I also made wigwams for our peas and beans and did all those jobs that you don't quite get round too.

Sam, their leader, opened up the shelving and was confronted with lots of nuts, bolts and no instructions! I left him and the kids to their lunches and a couple of screwdrivers, but when I returned the kids were starting to help him.  The weather was starting to turn.  It was forecast to be nice in the morning and turn wet and very windy by 1pm.  For once, the prediction was practically spot on for as 1pm approached, we felt the first spots of rain. So we spent the afternoon in the polytunnel, building ths shelving for the seeds trays.  I brought up a little team of Cookridge kids and they continued the seemingly endless task of sowing seeds and then Mr Gamble turned up with his Class 9!  It got all very cosy in the greenhouse.

Class 9 did what they do best and started to weed (in the rain) until it got the better of them and they retreated back into school, but several of them helped with the sowing, watering and tidying up after a really enjoyable and productive day.

Ralph Thoresby built 4 sets of shelving and then said their goodbyes. I couldn't thank them enough - the garden looks so much better and the pea frames look great. They were a great team and were really friendly, helpful and hardworking.  So once again - a very big thank you to Sam and the kids from Ralph Thoresby High School.

Team Thoresby clear a raised bed

Putting in posts 

More weeding

Tackling the compost bins

The Composters

More posts going in

The first of the recycled pea frames

Team Cookridge joined by Jordan

The Sowing Crew 

The not so easy shelving!

Add caption

Another recycled puppet

Our all new standing scarecrow!

Wednesday

First time in the garden this week after a trip to Meanwood Valley Farm yesterday with Class 4.  It was very educational for me as we were looking at habitats, so I picked up a lot of information about insect life and quizzed the guy about our ponds and what to expect rather than just ducks!

Today we had a small group of six children and we spent time turning over our compost bins and sieving the compost for use in the garden.  The kids were brilliant - digging it out, sieving it into a wheelbarrow and then wheeling it around to our other team of sowers, who were busy planting every single seed they could find! Great team effort.

We also picked some rhubarb and sorted out our orders that we had taken last week.  A quick sale after school on the playground saw slower sales, but most of it went.

Today also saw our inaugural after school garden club.  A lovely mixture of ages, we continued our work of digging out compost and sowing, then a little bit of weeding in the strawberry bed.  Jake's mum joined us and oversaw the sowing, while I kept an eye on the composters and did a little bit of tidying around that area. It was a lovely afternoon and the kids loved it and can't wait until next week! I'm hoping some parents will join in too. 

What a great afternoon

Had a great little gang up there today.

We basically got all the seeds out and sowed the lot.

Jamie, Connor, Lauren and Sam spent most of the afternoon in the beds, sowing everything they could find.  They made drills, sowed the seeds, labelled them and watered them.  Allsorts went in.  Cant wait til the summer to see what comes up, where! I just let the kids get on with it and they did.  Thoroughly enjoyed the responsibility of doing it on their own and the teamwork was just fantastic!
Joseph and Harvey happily sowed beans into our seed plugs and kept them in the polytunnel.  Later Harvey helped me fold up all the old plastic we used to cover the beds over winter.

So we could have a really jumbly mixture of crops in a few months!  Brilliant.

Well, it's a start...........

In charge of a water butt!

There's always one supervising!

Look at this teamwork!

They just loved every minute!

Happy Days

A beautiful sunny day (perhaps that Slovakian weather did follow me) and with five children with me, we tackled all those little jobs. We are now using our own compost for potting seedlings, so Libby and Josh dug some for us, while Katie and I filled the seed plugs.  Chuffed to bits about that. It was lovely working on the outside table in the sunshine with a gentle breeze - the greenhouse was a touch hot and rather unbearable, but Jack, Abigail and Freya weeded it, relaid the suppresant and put all our seedlings and tender plants in one area.  Thanks guys!

Our lady duck had been joined by Mr Duck and they sedately swim around despite Class 9 hanging over the fence, gawping at them.  They are very tolerant of us.

Class 9 appeared at 2pm and set about the weeding like pros.  We untangled the hose, set it up and watered the beds and managed to fill up the ex-sandpit with water.  It was a hive of activity and the kids worked really hard with all the different jobs up there. Great teamwork.

Last night, I got a call from one of our neighbours who had some tomato plants spare and wondered if we wanted them!  Of course, I had to have a think about it - for about half a nanosecond!  So we got six "Gardener's Delight" tomato plants.  Then this afternoon, Mrs Rivers, collecting her grandsons dropped by with spare lettuces and more tomatoes.  This is just wonderful and such a help with us struggling to plant things.

Next week, I will be running my after school garden club from 3.05 to 4.15.  I was running it during lunchtime, but it was very hit and miss with the time restraints. Hopefully it will be more successful after school.

I'm now hoping to start some Duck Tours soon that will entice the classes to come out and visit the garden more.  I'm sure they're convinced I'm lying in wait to sign them up for a raised bed and gardening slot!

Rhubarb!

Yesterday afternoon, we were in the middle of our rhubarb patch, happily harvesting it!  There were tons of it.  We got a good production line going with little Gina counting 10 stalks and putting them in bags, Jake and Mackenzie collecting the leaves that I was lobbing behind me as I trimmed them and Chloe bringing in more rhubarb!  Very soon we had about 12 bags with 10 stalks of rhubarb in each with the plan to sell them at £1 each.

Then someone mentioned about showing Mrs Bailey our crop. That in itself wasn't a problem - we piled them in our new dinky Morrison's wheelbarrow and pulled it through school - but as we passed teachers, we heard "Oooh rhubarb!" and instantly had a new fan club.

The kids went to see Mrs Bailey and wooed her further by giving her a bag.  When I caught up with them again, the barrow was half emptied! 

"Where's all the rhubarb?" I squeaked.

"Oh, we've sold it to Miss Hobson - she's got five bags" they replied, looking rather smug.

 

So we revised our plan as the remaining five bags we set out on the playground table looked rather pathetic.  We decided to sell 5 stalks per bag for 50p and doubled our stock.  As soon as the gates opened, the parents swooped on us and wiped us out within five minutes.  It was the easiest sale that we've done - we were ready to pack up before the bell had gone for hometime!  There were a couple of disappointed parents who arrived a little late, but then we started taking orders for next week's crop. Never done that either!

 

So a rather successful day all round.

 

Tuesday 30th April

Well, I'm back from my travels to Slovakia and I had a wonderful time.  I am now in charge of the International blog too, so check that out next week for more details of our adventures!

So we were back in the school garden in quite decent weather (though not quite the 24 degrees in Slovakia - sorry I didn't bring any of it back!) There seemed to be millions of jobs - watering, weeding and planting.

Stanley, Macauley and Joshua weeded the polytunnel as it looked like we were propagating dandelions!! Robert and Leon got rid of some dead plants and emptied the old tomato bags.  There was a gang planting up some daisies that Mrs Wright had given us and Rowan and Codie did a brilliant job pruning the herb garden!  The teachers have also been up there in my absence and Mr Gamble and his class of gardeners have been weeding the beds and busy sowing seeds.  It all helps, believe me!

The rhubarb has suddenly shot up, so one of the boys took some home for his mum, a visiting teacher took a bag home and so we made a sign with "RHUBARB FOR SALE TOMORROW" and advertised it in the playground at home time.  We heard lots of parents talking rhubarb and even got advanced orders!!! Brilliant.

The bonus was spotting a female duck sitting in our pond, who later had a swim!  Don't know if there's a Mr Duck and whether we might have the patter of tiny webbed feet later on!!  The kids all crept up and had a peek which was lovely.  Later I disturbed two Jays in the greenhouse.  It was all happening this afternoon!

Our resident duck

Mrs Duck having a swim

Teiser, Leon and Antonio using our compost!

Leon and Robert doing a sterling job

Matthew promoting our rhubarb sale

Our Community Daffodils

Over the last two/three years, we have been planting daffodils around our local area, with help from Groundworks and Councillor Sue Bentley.

Thought you would like to see a few photos of our lovely blooms in Cookridge.

Hillcrest Rise opposite the school

Outside Cookridge Primary

Otley Old Road

This was our very first project!

Otley Old Road, Cookridge

Last year's planting

Tinshill View, Cookridge