First Potatoes planted and First Compost Station Up!

Today we planted some of our seed potatoes into bags.  The weather this week has been really cold, but hopefully it will warm up soon so they can start to grow.

They have good strong shoots on them ready to grow...

 

Varieties were Rocket, Salad Blue, Orla and Rudolf (guess which one we thought might be good for a Christmas dinner later in the year?!)

We moved the bags outside to catch some rain and light - they are the only things that will be safe from the rabbits just now!

 

Earlier in the week, Kieran helped to knock the posts into the ground for our first "Compost Station" - a leaf-mold pile at the community centre end of the site.

 

It now contains leaves (thanks to Mrs Brown for bringing them in!) and...

 

 ...an information panel and orienteering stamp for the Composting Challenge.

During the challenge, pupils will collect the uniquely shaped stamp on their worksheet and answer questions on leaf-mold.

 

In other news this week, we made a start on the second composting station for the challenge - a perspex "tube" that comfrey leaves will rot down in.

The four sides needed sticking together (it takes 24 hours to set!) so we needed to make formers and use clamps to hold it all together before applying the glue.  The weather was very stormy - hail and thunder so we were glad of the shed to be able to shelter in at times!

 

 Compost from the old school site has now also been transferred into two of our dalek bins - ready to use on growing areas as we create them.

Also this week, we were proud as a school to be awarded the status of a "United Nations Rights Respecting School".  We were also assessed for two other awards (the results of which are yet to be decided).  They are for "creative learning" and "working towards employment".  It was great to have our outdoor learning and gardening work show-cased for these awards - represented here with Kieran's bug hotel, Rachel's laminated information sheets and the potting station under the table.  We hope to keep up this good work and continue to expand the potential for future pupils to experience a wide range of learning through creating and enhancing the garden spaces.

Rocket Science Experiment Launched!!

Fergus Coutie (S1) and Megan Roger (S6)

On Wednesday 20th April, members of the Science Club sowed Rocket Salad seeds.  They have been sent two packs from the Royal Horticultural Society.  One pack was taken into space with astronaut Tim Peake and has been orbiting Earth in the International Space Station.  The other pack has remained on Earth.  Crucially, we don't know which is which!

The club will monitor the two sets of seedlings as they germinate and grow and feed the results into a national experiment to help scientists learn how to best grow food in space.

We feel privileged and excited to be part of such an exciting experiment - watch this space for news as the rocket seeds emerge!

Each seed is labelled and the trays were randomised before placing on the windowsill 

Kieran brings the water butts over to the garden

In other news, guttering has arrived for the garden shed.  

We have managed to fit it along with water butts so next time it rains we will have water "on tap" for the garden - yay!

Chelsay and Rachel have cut a length of rabbit wire and fixed it to posts to create a leaf-mold pile as part of our School Compost Challenge.

This will be erected at the front of the site where we hope to create a mini "spring woodland garden" around it.

The EAGer bunch also worked hard on Friday generally tidying the site.  We picked up litter, chopped some dead plants into the compost bin and cleared the poly-tunnel site of any extra bricks or wood lying around.  Well done Sophie!

Shed Extension and Poly-tunnel visitors

A sunny couple of weeks at the end of term has allowed us to progress well in the garden.  To summarise, we now have an extension on the shed to serve as overflow storage space!  The roof was felted on Good Friday so is now waterproof too.  Thanks to Ellon timber for their prompt delivery :) 

Lena North and Helen Henderson from Ellon Resource Centre came to visit the gardens to talk about the possibility of helping us build and maintain them in future.  It will be great for varied and diverse groups to be involved.  We will also very much appreciate folk who can keep things going during our school holidays!

We finally got a chance to work some more on the poly-tunnel too.  Here Miss Swallow fills in the trench to hold the door frame in place.  School has now finished for the Easter break so the EAGer bunch would like to wish you all a lovely holiday and see you again in two weeks' time!

RIDAN arrives

Today, we took delivery of a RIDAN hot composter system.  Dan Welburn (who designed and makes the unique composters) came with his family from Devon to deliver it to us!

The composter will allow us to recycle all the canteen food waste and produce lovely rich compost for the garden.

During lunchtime, some school staff and members of Ellon Resource Centre were introduced to the process and how the composter works.  Members of the Resource Centre are keen to volunteer to help us build and maintain our gardens.  This is great as it means someone will be able to tend plants during the summer holidays when pupils are away!  We hope you enjoy the gardens and come to feel that they are yours too!

Each day, we will put the food waste into the "chimney end" and add an equal quantity of sawdust.

The handle is then turned to mix the contents.  In time, as the handle is turned, compost will drop out of the other end into a bucket.  It then goes into a "maturation bin" for about four months until it is ready to use on the garden.

The system should reach temperatures of 50 to 70 degrees as the organic matter rots down.  Turning the handle is important to ensure that the material falls down into the composter properly as air can then be drawn up through the hole in the bottom and out through the hole in the chimney.  If we didn't turn the handle, the food and sawdust would block the chimney so air would not circulate properly, resulting in a stagnant and smelly mixture!

Pupils from the enrichment program and some small curricular classes will be responsible for filling the RIDAN and turning the handle each day.  We are thrilled to have this ability to make our own compost on site.  The funding was awarded as part of an "Access to Education" grant for us to create a composting challenge.  The challenge will involve other types of composting - set up as an orienteering task around the new site so watch this space for more as we build the different composting stations!

Tesco Bags of Help Results!

The Results of the public vote have been announced...Ellon Academy were voted into second place so we will be awarded £10,000!

Thank you to all those who voted for us - this money means that we can really get started with laying paths and erecting rabbit-proof fencing!  Look out in the local press this week for more and to find out which projects were first and third in the vote.

Seed Potato Sales and Splitting Snowdrops

This week, we prepared orders for delivery to staff.  We are selling "Orla" seed potatoes to raise money for the garden.  They are an adaptable potato to grow as they are a "first early" which means they can be lifted early in the season as new potatoes with a delicate flavour but can also be left in the ground to grow into bigger "main-crop" potatoes that will store well too.

Sophie and Megan also potted up some snowdrops that have been dug up from the old school site.

They split large clumps to make more smaller ones that can fill out in readiness for planting into the memorial garden at a later date.

Meanwhile, Kieran continued to break up pallets and remove the nails so we can use the free wood for making bug boxes and picket fences.

We would also like to thank Miss Anderson who has donated some gardening equipment (including the soil and troughs we used today for the snowdrops).  It was a pleasure to find the box sitting with a note by the garden shed, so thank you!

Numeracy in the Garden

On Wednesday 9th March, the garden hosted its first Numeracy lessons!  23 Primary-7 pupils visiting the Academy for the day spent a lesson learning about the importance of accurate measurements and how to use Pythagoras's theorem to ensure that our rectangular raised beds will actually be rectangular!  Two groups of 8 and one group of 7 pupils worked with Miss Swallow over three 50 minute periods.

Teamwork and communication were essential to get the canes in the correct spot.

Learning to use a tape measure and keep it taught and level for better accuracy.

Our "words of the day" were Pythagoras and Hypotenuse!

Pupils sat in the shed to discuss the maths before putting it into action in the garden.  Well done to those groups who got the canes perfectly positioned and thank you to the group who measured the garden spaces so I can now create a scale plan in order to calculate the area of the paths more accurately.

Meanwhile, last Friday the EAGer Bunch got cracking with treating the shed...

...or is that the CSI team?...

and Miss Swallow helped out at the Transition Black Isle "Potato Day" last weekend which means she could bring back a selection of interesting seed potato varieties for us to grow in the garden. 

Also this week, we managed to collect 4 trailer loads of willow cut from the old school site.  This can be used to create new hedges and hopefully some interesting living structures...watch this space!  Thanks to Mrs Russell (ASfL), Mr Cruickshank and Mr Wilson from Technology for all your help!