Spring Blooms and Work Continues Apace

This week, the rotary club members visited the garden to see how their End Polio crocus bulbs are coming on.

They are in full bloom...

...and look good...

 in the two newly built plant theatres!

Meanwhile there was a lot of work this Wednesday and Thursday to prepare for a Digger coming in on Saturday.  The boys shifted slabs, more topsoil...

...and rolled back the weed barrier.  Drainage channels will hopefully help with the mud and wet in order to lay better paths.

After all their hard work, they rested a while in the poly-tunnel and potted on some of the wild flowers

Our new stern looking pot people kept a close eye on them!

"You talking about me?!"

In other news, pupils plant onions in the poly-tunnel border,

we have a big delivery of building materials

"How's about that for a hoola hoop?!"

Kiera and Joy clean and re-fill the bird feeders

whilst Jacob starts to empty the big tyre.  We need to move it to make space for the planned poly-tunnel classroom.

Joy lends a hand...

...and they just got it done as the bell went!  Well done you two.

The poly-tunnel has been tidied...

and swept

and the garden looked and felt great in the afternoon sunshine.

Also school journalist Freya came by to interview Miss Swallow about the garden project as part of the BBC "School Report News Day 2017"

Potty about Potatoes! All funds go to the school garden.

On Saturday 4^th March, Miss Swallow helped out at the Transition Black Isle Potato Day which now, in its 7th year has gained quite a following.  Over 75 varieties of seed potato were available at 15 pence per tuber.

By way of thanks, the group donated some boxes of seed potatoes to the school both to sell to raise funds for the garden and to plant ourselves to enjoy the crops at school.  Staff have been invited to purchase them; if any members of the public are interested, they can email sswallow@ellonacademy.aberdeenshire.sch.uk to place an order (15p per tuber) stating variety, number required and a contact email or phone number to arrange a collection date.  All funds raised go to the school garden :) 

Below is a comprehensive list of varieties available along with suggestions for which cook best in certain ways:

First Earlies

Orla * (1998, O.P. 657/3 x Spunta)

Currently the most blight resistant first early. Can be used as a decent early new potato or grown on as a maincrop when it becomes more general purpose. Stores well, long dormancy. Oval, white.

Pentland Javelin * (1968, Craigs Royal x 2356(11) x USDA 41956 x Austr. Seedling)

White, oval, good flavoured new potato. Tends to bulk up later than most first earlies.

Second Earlies

Bonnie (2006, Estima x 83N28-47)

White with red eye splashes, short oval, cream flesh, moderately floury general purpose, bakes well.

Maincrop

Innovator # (2004-ish, Shepody x RZ-84-2580)

A russet skinned, high dry matter, floury, cream coloured flesh, often large round to oval potato. Good flavour, yields,

good roast and mash, very good blight resistance. Recommended.

Orla * (1998, O.P. 657/3 x Spunta)

Currently the most blight resistant first early. Can be used as a decent early new potato or grown on as a maincrop when it becomes more general purpose. Stores well, long dormancy. Oval, white.

Royal # (2008, Midas x 92-BUY-1)

Crisping / chipping variety. Biggish tubers and yield, good roast and mashed. Danish bred, McCain using for chips.

Torino

An attractive smooth red skinned variety with a distinctive firm yellow flesh. Maincrop maturity producing very high yields that are more suited to early season storage. Very good general resistance to disease.

Late Maincrop

Pink Fir Apple (1850)

The legendary salad potato for winter use from store. Knobbly, irregular tubers that should be cooked whole in their

skins. Yellowish flesh, excellent flavour. Plants often untidy and prone to wind damage.

Suggestions for Growing and Cooking

Blight resistant: Innovator; Orla

Eelworm resistant: Pentland Javelin

Roast: Innovator

Mash: Innovator, Orla, Royal, Torino, most high dry matter main-crops

Fry: Torino

Bake: Orla

Scrub and boil...

First Earlies: Pentland Javelin

Maincrop: Pink Fir Apple

All Hands On Deck!

Again, lots of hard work in the last two weeks!

Our fabulous team of boys have shifted FIVE TONNES of topsoil into the raised beds!!  

Despite the cold and wet weather, they have worked tirelessly to get more growing areas ready for planting.

The soil has a layer of gravel underneath to help with drainage as the ground is very wet.

We should be able to plant out our fruit bushes very soon...

The EAGer bunch transplanted the rhubarb from the old tyre...

...lifting the healthy plants carefully...

...and planting them into a more permanent position in one of the new raised beds.

This means we can move the giant tyre to make space for a poly-tunnel classroom in future.

 In other news, we now have several "Boot Scrapers" dotted about the garden to help with our muddy footwear!  Thanks to our volunteer Elizabeth for her handiwork here!

We also had more sand and gravel delivered in preparation of laying paths between the raised beds...

...and on a cheery note, the crocuses are now beginning to shine!  Roll on the spring...

New path, more topsoil, planting has started!

A lot has happened in a short time this week!

  The main entrance path has been started...

...so the slabs are now flat and level.

We had an enormous delivery of soil - 5 tonnes approximately!

Two were put over the double gates ready to wheelbarrow into the poly-tunnel and long herbaceous border.

Three were put over the fence into the raised bed area so we can shovel and rake straight into the growing spaces saving time and effort!  A HUGE thank you to David Reid for this delivery!

Euan got busy finishing the raised bed along the back fence ready for topsoil.  This is where we hope to plant our special fruit trees when they arrive.

EAGer bunch got planting too on Friday.  This is them putting garlic into the first raised bed.

It was a lovely sunny afternoon, so we chatted as we planted ☺☺☺

Meanwhile the S2 horticulture class were clearing the previous topsoil delivery ready for the new one...

...and they sowed more peas and beans into paper pots in the poly-tunnel.

The RIDAN storage cupboard has also now been moved to its new home.  This was tricky - Michael helped by giving directions and strapping it/unstrapping with the ratchet straps.

The crocus bulbs are well on the way, but in the ground they have been ravaged by something (Squirrel?  Mouse?  Bird?) that has been lifting the bulbs and carrying them away.

We managed to protect some just in time, using the old tree guards pinned to the ground.

The RIDAN area is now almost paved - just a few more to go and it will be finished at last.

A little visitor helps with watering in the poly-tunnel!

Youth Action Group raises £70 for the garden

You might have noticed an article in the local paper last week - showing members of Ellon Academy's Youth Action Group presenting Miss Swallow with a cheque for £70.
They raised the money with a bake sale.  We hope to spend it on some specialist fruit trees - espaliers, cordons and "step-overs".  These are specially trained to grow into patterns against a fence and mean we can optimise fruit production in a small space.  We look forward to apples, pears, plums and cherries so there will be spring blossom in the garden too.  Watch this space...and a HUGE thank you to the Youth Action Group!!

In other news, we collected some well rotted manure last month to dig into the beds in the poly-tunnel.

We also managed to pave more of the area for our RIDAN hot composter...

...and move it over the fence - a logistical test as it is very heavy!

There is still some work to be done, but the RIDAN can now be used again which means we can recycle most of our canteen waste into lovely compost for the garden.