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.

Please vote for us!

Voting is now live for the Pocket Garden competition.  Schools across Scotland designed gardens that fit on the space of a pallet.  We were selected as one of 45 winners (out of 340) to build our design.

Below is our story along with pictures of us building it.

To vote for us please go to

 https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/6HM2PGM

select Ellon Academy then click "submit your vote"

 

 TEAM-CG: The Ellon Academy Memorial Community Garden

Our garden combines well known stories with characters from our pupil's imaginations. The garden includes lots of sensory stimulation. Our marble run adds sound, whilst well known characters wander past colourful flowers and painted stones. Look out for Mr Tall and Mrs Small, representing death & decay and life & growth that surround us in nature. 

Our Garden Story 

We started with the Gruffalo story because it is a favourite of Jacob who has met the author.  We created a Gruffalo and mouse character. 

The Gruffalo is painted onto slate and the mouse is made from clay.  We researched the author more, discovering that she also wrote “What the Ladybird heard”.  This got us thinking about sounds in the garden and other creatures. 

We painted stones to be ladybirds and made owls out of wood and sticks.  The smaller owl sits on a tree trunk like it is in a nest, the larger one is mounted on a wire, so it moves in the breeze to look alive. 

Darren designed “Mr Tall” who represents death and decay (a natural process in the garden and something which makes it wildlife friendly). 

Harrison designed “Mrs Small” who is made of willow and represents life and growth. 

Finally, we have a superhero in our garden – “Flash” – Dougal’s favourite character.  This was made from an old drinks bottle.  Mr Tall is made of sticks, wire, an old football, plant pots for his neck and hat and an old shawl for his cloak. 

 

We made a marble “sound-run” using lots of different materials to see what sounds they made.  We used slate, plastic, wood, metal, cardboard and glass.  They were all things from the shed or around the garden.  The glass jar at the end is full of water and sits in a tray of water which will attract insects.  When not in use, we put a stick in the jar, so insects do not drown! 

We also drilled holes in a piece of wood in the shape of a smiling face, to give insects a place to hide.  We have put some sticks, canes and straw into the back of the pallet wall for a mini bug-hotel and birds can find the straw for bedding material. 

We used old pallet wood to build the central path and lined it with gravel left over from our garden path-building.  We topped it with shiny pebbles from our classroom - they were unused in our crafting box.  We laid used compost bags onto the flat pallet before positioning our plants.

Plants in our garden include small trees – to represent the woodland walk for the Gruffalo story.  We have Scots pine, hawthorn and beech, all of which give shelter and habitat. Foxgloves, lupins and hardy geranium are good flowers to attract insects.  Honesty flowers are irresistible to the orange-tip butterfly and our flowers are grown from seed collected from Down House in Kent, where Charles Darwin lived for over 40 years!  We have nasturtiums and runner beans growing up the back wall – they will have flowers for insects and produce edible crops.  We also have French marigolds for cheerful colour and edible too.  As Gruffalo and mouse walk, they might also smell the Moroccan mint and chives – both of which would add flavour to many dishes! 

 

To keep the plants healthy we gave them a feed and watered them well before mulching the top of the pots with wood-chip.  This made it look more like a forest floor and will help to prevent weeds.  We placed ladybird stones all around the garden.  

 

After the competition, we will plant the edible plants into our garden.  The trees and flowers will go into our plant sale but if they do not sell, we shall plant them out too.  We will keep the characters safe in the shed through the winter months, then create a story trail in future for visitors to find in spring and summer! 

 

We have really enjoyed building all the elements of the garden and turning our design into reality.  We feel proud of it and hope you love it too. 

Please vote for our Pocket Garden!

 

Our senior community resource hub boys have created a Pocket Garden, which will be exhibited on the Keep Scotland Beautiful online showcase from Wednesday 8^th June. You can vote for us now. Voting will close at 9am on Monday 20^th June.  Go to: Pocket Garden Showcase page and click on the link for Ellon Academy.  There are photos of us building it along with  stories and themes that helped us design it.  Thank you!

Pocket Garden is run by Keep Scotland Beautiful in partnership with the Garden for Life Forum, and this year, Scottish Book Trust has joined them in celebration of the 2022 Year of Stories.