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.