Friday 18 May 2018

Ellon Rotary donate £400 to help develop the garden


On Wednesday evening, Miss Swallow attended the Ellon Rotary meeting where they were presenting their community awards.  They gave our garden project £400.  This will help us to landscape the area around the new poly-tunnel to make it more accessible.  Thank you to all Rotary members for your support.

Fifteen different groups were awarded funds for many varied projects.  There were two others from Ellon Academy - Mrs Murdoch collected £400 to help with hosting authors to the library and Mrs Waugh £400 for a third year Personal & Social Education project.

Meanwhile the polytunnels doors were hung on rails this week...

...and covered with polythene.

All the excess polythene has now been trimmed from the structure...

...so it is complete.

Euan helped to build two more raised beds.

These will provide more planting space for our vegetables :)

The S1 class cropped rhubarb to make into a crumble on Friday

They also planted potatoes into bags...

...several varieties: Rooster, Orla, Bambino and Foremost

The EAGer Bunch potted on pansies.  They are very colourful just now and have out-grown the small pots.
Another productive week - well done to everyone and thank you for all your good effort.

Friday 11 May 2018

Additions to our gardening family and the new poly-tunnel takes shape!


This week we had to cordon off two areas of the garden as eggs have hatched in two nests! 

We have a family of robins and a family of thrushes being raised in the centre of our garden :)


A lot of progress has also been made with the poly-tunnel classroom.  Wooden batons were attached all round the bottom...

...and "hotspot tape" was put over each pole.

This prevents the metal warming up and wearing holes in the polythene.

Talking of polythene, we had a very large roll to cope with!

A bit difficult in the breeze, but the sun was shining so we really wanted to get on with it.

We attached one side...

...then recruited some help to get the whole thing taught before nailing batons on the other side.

Thanks to Rhian and Jamie who came to our rescue for an hour to help! :)

The trick for getting the polythene "drum tight" is to raise the base rails before attaching it then loosen them off and stand on them to lower them which stretches the covert tight before re-tightening the bolts.

Ta-da!  Next we need to make the doors!

Meanwhile on Monday the S3 class worked with the S1 class outside the garden so as not to disturb the birds. 

They had a production line going - newspaper went in one end and got turned into mini pots.

These were then filled with soil and planted up with seedlings from our seed trays.

We have lots more seedlings to prick out waiting in the polytunnels.

Also this week, the art department made the most of the sun and enjoyed their lunch in the fresh air.

There were two P7 "transition" lessons in the garden this week.

Both groups enjoyed sowing seeds for us.

We had a delivery of timber for building more raised beds...

...and more topsoil from the farmer to fill them with - thanks David!

The S1 class cleaned lots of plant labels on Wednesday...

...then used some right away for bean seeds.

We stand newly sown seeds in trays of water to wet them thoroughly.
 
On Friday the S3 class planted potatoes - "Bambino"

and the EAGer Bunch planted "Pink Gypsy".

A quick rest before planting onions too!

So, another week making the most of any sunshine and getting lots of jobs done!  Please return next week to see things progress even further :)  Happy Gardening in the meantime!

Friday 4 May 2018

National Gardening Week DAY 5 Friday!


Today was the last day in school during National Gardening Week.  The S3 Horticulture Class all earned merits for their effort and focussed behaviour this morning.  They worked in pairs - pricking out seedlings in the poly-tunnel, potting up cuttings out on the patio and starting to rake the muddy area loosened by the digger yesterday.  Ross also put food and sawdust into the RIDAN hot composter.


At lunchtime, the EAGer Bunch sowed small seeds into trays - coriander, verbena bonariensis (a tall flowers to attract bees) and curly kale.


Jakob and Joy potted up more cuttings...

...enough to make a small hedge in future!

Staff from the art department came out for a picnic and enjoyed relaxing on deckchairs in the sun :)

This afternoon, Mrs Moir brought out her Practical Craft Skills class (Ryan and Ross here) to help celebrate the close of National Gardening Week instead of being inside the workshop.

We had a list of 4 jobs...

Taking out the cold frames from the poly-tunnel now the winter is over.

They will now be used to harden off crops before we plant them out into the raised beds.

We then weeded the borders...

...and raked the soil ready for new crops to go in.

It was 26 degrees centigrade inside the poly-tunnel!  Ryan cooled down outside (just a pleasant 22degrees) by cleaning some plant labels.

Our next job was the "deckchair challenge!"  Who could put theirs together the best?

A bit of a puzzle!

They needed testing out of course!

We now have a set of four for visitors to enjoy.  Well done boys!


Finally we used "draw hoes" to make wide drills in a raised bed...

...then planted seed potatoes into them. 

As they grow, we will earth them up to encourage more tubers to form.

So, all in all a very busy and productive National Gardening Week at Ellon Academy Garden.  We hope all our visitors enjoyed themselves and will be tempted to return in future.  Well done to all pupils and volunteers who have spared time to help out with jobs!  Such help enables us to have the garden looking as good as it does so THANK YOU!! :)

Enjoy the May bank holiday weekend and we look forward to more action in the coming weeks .