Better weather gets us busy!

Today, we did our first grass-cut of the year.  Kody, Kyle and Lawrence were learning how to use the mower.

At break time, the Interact group came to see the crocuses they planted in the autumn…

…they are a symbol of Rotary’s End Polio campaign.

In the afternoon, William helped chip lots of sticks into small pieces…

…which we used to mulch the fruit border.

Kyle, Lawrence, Ashley and Cara came during lunch earlier in the week to shovel the gravel from the parking area…

…it will be the foundation of our last unfinished path.

Ashleigh helped sweep the fruit cage path…

…and started using compost from our “cold heap” to spread on the veg-beds.

On Monday, the Junior Enhanced Provision S1 class planted onions into modules.

They put them in trays of water in the polytunnel.  We will plant them outside once they have good roots.

In other news, Gordon Park preschool children are excited to adopt a couple of the beds to grow their own flowers and veg this year.  Here, they are putting potatoes into egg boxes to “chit” before planting out.  We look forward to seeing what they choose to grow and hope they enjoy our garden!

Over and Above

 Thanks to the JEP class for securing the polytunnel doors before Storm Bert arrives this weekend.  A big shout out goes to William C who also went over and above this afternoon by doing the RIDAN (our hot composter)…

…and topping up the bird feeders.

He enjoyed a well deserved hot drink from our Academy “Spill the Beans” coffee shop!

Rush before the winter weather!

Lots to do in the garden tidying it ready for spring!  The Junior Enhanced Provision group have been very busy.

Weeding,

feeding the birds,

cutting back bushes,

digging up the last of the potatoes…

…and sweeping the autumn leaves.

We’ve continued cooking our potatoes in different ways - crisps, wedges, boiled, mash and CHIPS!

Everyone enjoyed them.

We’ve also had a mini “concreting team” trying to finish our paths

 - a work in progress as it’s tricky getting time and weather to match up!

We’ve laid the last of the slabs and need to join some sections with concrete - probably a job for next year now!

We’ve been keeping our hot composter filled & turned and have delivered four trays of grapes to the Basics Barn food bank at the Kirk Centre in Ellon.

Preparing for Spring!

 

Yesterday, our Interact group along with members of Rotary came to the garden to plant crocus bulbs as part of the “End Polio Now” scheme.  It was lovely to have so many people visiting!

The pots will be watered and cared for and put on display in our “plant theatre” in Spring.  More bulbs were given for planting into the Memorial Garden to add colour to our spring orchard.

In other news, we have now harvested most of our crops and been selling veg boxes to staff.

Our Junior Enhance Provision class have been digging up delicious red potatoes…

…to cook them in many different ways! We started with crisps and potato wedges.

Senior pupil Sean has worked really hard to bring the garden round after the summer holidays - mowing, strimming and hedge cutting!

Meanwhile, Miss S has been improving the accessibility of the garden by cleaning and adding guide lines to the paths and patio.

On a rainy day, we added colour to our outdoor kitchen…

…and have continued to recycle canteen food waste in our hot composter.

We spread the compost on our veg beds to feed next years crops!

The lunch club too have been planting spring bulbs in the memorial garden and keeping the path clear of weeds.

Floral Delights

Very proud on Thursday to have been asked to provide fresh flower arrangements for our staff lunch to mark the retirement of our head teacher Mrs Buchan.  We collected flowers and foliage from all our garden areas…

…and took them to the classroom to trim and arrange.

We delivered them to the library and they looked lovely on the tables.

 

In other news, Simon Whitworth from “Keep Scotland Beautiful” came that afternoon to have a full tour of all our gardens.  He enjoyed listening to our plans and how we use the garden for teaching and learning plus a huge variety of activities.  We look forward to his report later in the year and seeing what level we are awarded.  He loved what we have been doing and our plans for the future.

Today, pupils have worked really hard to get last minute jobs done - seeding the new grass path between the two polytunnels, weeding a border to plant out sunflowers, covering our soil pile to prevent weeds, and tidying left over sand, gravel etc.

Well done to them all. 

EAGerBunch wish everyone a happy and refreshing summer holiday🌤🕶

Hopefully there will be lots of produce growing when we return.

🥕 🧅 🥔 🍅 🍇 

Interact sunflower seeds germinate

 

Back in May, members of Interact sowed sunflower seeds.  They returned on Wed 12th June to see how they were getting on.

They were joined by Tanya, who came to see where the sunflowers will be planted in support of the people from her home country of Ukraine.  They will make a fine show later in the summer 🌞🌻

All hands on deck for concreting - Episode 2!

David Reid, our friendly farmer neighbour gave us a huge boost last Thursday by bringing his digger to move bulk bags of aggregate, sand and cement closer to the Memorial Garden gate.

This saved us a lot of time and energy!

On Monday, volunteer staff helped Sean and Miss S to mix more concrete.  As a team, we worked fast to keep the mixer supplied and turning.  

We tipped the concrete directly onto the platform then raked and tamped it smooth.

We continued after break in light drizzle but by period 4 we had to stop and cover the platform because it was raining too hard.  We washed all the tools and put everything away.

Thanks to Mrs Nicholson, Miss Noufal and Mr MacClarence for your hard work, and to Miss Thomlinson for helping to pack away in the rain!  Over and above for Sean M! 😎

One more push, and this platform should be ready for our gazebo!