Christmas Gifts and some Great News!

Jacob and Harrison delivered our "Gifts for Gardeners" boxes to staff who had put in orders.

We "recycled, reused" where possible and included a hand made ceramic coaster, mug and tea/biscuit for busy gardeners to enjoy along with plant labels, gloves, pencil, twine and lots of our own harvested seeds (we hope some of them germinate!).  A huge thank you to all that bought a box!

In other exciting news, we have recently been judged "Joint NATIONAL Winner" by Keep Scotland Beautiful, for their "Involving Children and Young People" discretionary award.  Well done to everyone past and present who has worked in the garden to help us reach this point.  This is fabulous recognition of all we have achieved and I'm very proud of you all!

Have a wonderful holiday, and I look forward to seeing you all in the New Year!
 

"sNOw" reason not to be in the garden!

 Just before the school closed early due to snow on Tuesday, the EAGer Bunch were out in the garden for lunch.  It was like a snow cave in the polytunnel class-room!

We turned the RIDAN hot composter to keep it going...

...then had some fun, building our own snowman!

It even helped us sweep the snow 😂😂

Prestigious award for Ellon Academy Garden

 

S6 pupils Dougal and Jacob independently attended an award ceremony today to receive an RHS "It's your Neighbourhood" award on behalf of Ellon Academy Gardeners (EAGerBunch)

The event took place in Inverurie at the Garioch Heritage Centre.

Our garden was judged "Level 4 - Thriving" for which we are extremely proud.

Well done and a huge thank you to all who have helped build our garden and those who help to look after it and enjoy it!

Bumper crops and a busy term!

 

Jacob and Dougal have been very busy delivering tomatoes and grapes.  A huge thank you to all those who support the garden by buying produce - folk have said how tasty it is.

As a sharp frost was forecast, we picked the rest of the grapes and tomatoes on Thursday and delivered them to the Kirk Centre to help feed local families.  Nicola and Edith were very pleased to take them!  They also told me that our green tomato chutney last year was treasured and went out to families in the Christmas Hampers.  The senior boys agreed that it was a great way to share our fruit and veg 😊

It certainly was a great crop this year!

The junior hub pupils have enjoyed harvesting too (photos to follow in future once photo permissions are granted)

We have been selling weekly boxes to staff - which include potatoes, onions and garlic.

We also have new "EAGerBunch" members who come on a Friday lunchtime to help plant up the Memorial Garden.  We have had our hands full since the summer holidays getting on top of weeds (an ongoing challenge!)

We took delivery of a metal rose arch...

...assembled it...

...and anchored it into position.

There is a white climbing rose on each side of the arch so in future we should be walking under colourful scented blooms!

Brodie is fab at weeding...

...and Scott is doing a brilliant job on the path!

Lucy and Peter get stuck in, planting spring bulbs in the orchard corner of the Memorial Garden.

We had good apples on the new trees this year...

The seniors made apple crumble along with grape ice cream...

...it was a delicious combination.  Some lucky staff got to sample it too!

The meadow corner of the Memorial Garden has been looking good.  We have timber ready and waiting to make tops on the gabion seats.

In other news, Dougal and Darren have been painting the shed,

others have mulched beds with our home-made compost,

and we have been collecting seeds from our sunflowers.  We will keep some to sow next year and use others to make nutritious fat balls for the birds this winter.

Kenny who services the sprinkler system every week was happy to take one for his own garden 🌻

One of our new first years is also making us a plant display stand to keep our herbs on near the polytunnel - thank you Kody!

Some visitors to the garden last month.

Welcome to All

 

This term we not only welcome our pupils, staff and volunteers back to the Academy but we also welcome all refugees that may have arrived from around the world.

The S2 modern studies classes that sowed sunflower seeds have now created posters in support of Ukraine that are on display alongside the flowers. 

I hope you will agree that they look fabulous and welcoming!

In other news, our apple trees and perennials from the Scottish government's nature restoration fund projects have settled in well and are growing.  We have a new lunchtime club which met for the first time last Friday to help build and maintain the Memorial Garden.  They got stuck in with major weeding!

ASL classes have also been busy harvesting crops.  We sell boxes to staff to raise money for the productive garden.

End of a busy term

 

Thank you to all those who voted for our pocket garden.  The voting has now closed and we were not selected as a final winner for the building of the garden.  You can see the winners here.  We are proud of our garden and really enjoyed building it from our winning design.  We will keep our characters, and the plants are now being transferred to the Memorial Garden.

This week, we held a plant sale.  Staff came out at lunch time to buy an assortment of flowers, vegetable seedlings, herbs and trees.  

Thanks to all those who supported us - we raised £61.65 which will help us keep the garden maintained.

Dougal potting up plants for the sale

Setting up the sale tables

Last week, S2 humanities classes came out to the garden as part of Refugee Week.  They enjoyed the sunshine, and each sowed a sunflower seed in solidarity with Ukraine.  We will have a huge display in several raised beds later in the year so look out for that!

The classes also visited the Memorial Garden area.  They helped sow wild flower seeds and also got to see our "Remember River".  It is a dry river bed which will connect a water feature at one end, to a "pool" of blue flowers at the other.  We hope to scatter blue glass to sparkle like water in the sun and also make "tear drops" and circles from blue perspex with words engraved on them - both sad and happier words to represent a gradual adjustment to the loss of loved ones.  It was wonderful to have so many visitors showing an interest - folk have also pledged to help us build it when we return in August.

Dougal rolls out "the river"!

Earlier in the term, we were very happy to take delivery of roses from Harkness Rose Company as part of their community gardening scheme.  

They are red and yellow bush roses, white climbing roses and a very special yellow hybrid tea rose named John Ystumllyn.  John was an 18th century gardener who was the first well-recorded Black person in North Wales.  The rose is to celebrate friendship and community so seemed perfect for our Memorial Garden!

We have also been gifted some heritage apple trees from the Scottish Government as part of their "Nature Restoration Program" to help recover biodiversity.  We planted them, fed, watered and mulched them to give them a good start.  There are now small apples appearing.

Getting more plants into the ground before the end of term!

In other news, the recent good weather has brought the productive garden into full bloom.

Laser cut signs from the technology department look smart for our fruit trees.

Thanks to ex member of staff Elaine Anderson who returned to school to donate useful garden supplies...

...and thanks to staff who have continued to buy produce to support the garden.

Delivered with smiles!

Gooseberries ripening...

...onions drying...

...Lewis keeps the grass looking great...

...and we even manage to get some relaxation in too!

As a special thank you for all their hard work, the senior boys were treated to a pizza lunch today!

Tasty and toasty in just two minutes!

We wish everyone a happy summer holiday.

 We also look forward to returning to our gardens to make them even better together with others in the new term.