Happy National Gardening Week 2020!

It will be rather a different National Gardening Week this year as school is "from home" during the coronavirus pandemic.  I did return to the garden today to check things over and everything is doing just fine!  See below for a few photos.

I hope my lovely pupils are managing to get out into your own gardens or do a walk outdoors each day to spot some signs of Spring.  I thought each day this week, we could have a "Word du Jour" for you to learn and talk about so here we go:

Monday - "A fine tilth" - A phrase rather than a single word but a lovely one all the same!  If you have been sowing any seeds outside recently you may well have created "a fine tilth" to sow the seeds onto.  It is the end result after you have weeded and raked to create a lovely crumbly fine textured surface to the soil.  This means there are no big lumps or stones for seeds to get caught on.  Seeds can fall on the perfectly prepared surface and germinate with ease so long as they have some water and the correct temperature of course.

Our crab apple tree is in beautiful blossom...

...as well as the tree grown in the shape of a fan.

The polytunnel beds needed some weeding.  Here are the onions before...

...and after!

The salad rocket has gone to seed so bees are enjoying the flowers...

...and the winter purslane too!

The grape vine is coming into bud in the polytunnel...

...and outside the rhubarb is well on the way!

The pansies are still alive thankfully!  They are a lovely colourful sight.  I'll keep you posted over the coming weeks and months and there will certainly be many jobs for us to do on our return to catch up with things again!  In the meantime, please stay safe, keep up your good work at home and speak to you soon on TEAMS!

School Closed to Prevent the spread of COVID-19

Sadly but very necessarily, the school has closed to try and slow the spread of the corona-virus.  This means that the garden also is closed until further notice.  Once we realised the increasing likelihood of a closure, we endeavoured to cover as many exposed beds as possible to prevent weeds taking over.  

S3 pupils rushed to plant some potatoes in order to have crops on our return.

Miss Swallow took the rest (lots!) home to plant - again so we can enjoy crops on our return.

Mrs Patterson helped to plant out lovely primroses and crocuses so they would not die.  On Thursday lunchtime Kiera put the "End Polio" crocus pots into the plant theatres on the shed so they also can catch any rain.

Patrick helped move potted plants out of the polytunnel.  They will have a shock with the sudden change in temperature but hopefully survive out there!

More beds to cover...

...and Lewis  wanted to leave the shed clean and tidy 🙂

A "Growing Kit" was quickly prepared for pupils to take home.  It contained some First Early "Rocket" potatoes, some seeds, photo sheets to complete and crop instruction sheets.  I look forward to seeing your plants as spring unfolds folks!

In technology lessons, the S3 pupils really wanted to get their mug trees finished...

...so we popped them in the bag too!

Meanwhile in other news, before the exceptional circumstances took hold, S5 pupils started digging out the last bit of path - to connect the main circle to the central square where the gazebo will stand.

Inevitably this meant the stone pile grew bigger!!

S3 pupils potted up colourful pansies donated for the Memorial Garden to grow them on until we are ready to plant them out.  

Lucky we did as they should be okay throughout the summer in the bigger pots.

Some good news as spring gets into full swing: the Swift Box on the school building is being used - not by swifts but two sparrows are busy building a nest in there!  All part of nature's web, so we are happy that it has been adopted for this year!

Despite being closed, please check the blog now and then as I shall be posting updates on pupil activities involving the garden albeit remotely and let you know how the school crops are coming on.  In the meantime, please stay safe, stick to the government guidelines and be kind to others who may need some support from a distance during this difficult time.  We wish you all well.

Colourful crocuses herald the start of spring and an "End to Polio"

Last Friday, the Interact group came out to the garden to see the Rotary End Polio Crocus flowers in bloom.

They timed it just perfectly as they are looking great.

It was a lovely day, so the group decided to stay.

They set to work sweeping...

...watering...

...and weeding!  Thank you all for your efforts - you made a big difference in a short time 🙂

In other news, we had a visitor -  Barbara Last - to see the whole garden project and talk about possible funding opportunities from the Co-op.

Miss Swallow also attended the Transition Black Isle Potato Day to help out with the event.

Many varieties of seed potato were available to the public...

...and several boxes were donated to school at the end so a huge thank you to them as well!  The tubers are available at 15p each - email at susan.swallow@aberdeenshire.gov.uk if interested to buy and collect from school.  The remainder will be planted in the garden of course.

Meanwhile crops continue to mature in the polytunnel...

...we are cropping winter salad leaves for staff...

...and pupils have been potting up plants for the Memorial Garden area.

Big Dig Day a great success! Funds raised for gabions.

The S5 boys had a great day on Friday 21st February.  They were excused from some classes in order to be able to spend the whole day in the Memorial Garden 

Our mission was to collect as many stones as possible from the poor soil.

We barrowed them over to make a big pile.  Ross also got "arty" with his camera!

I am proud to say that the boys worked really hard all day

We weeded as we went too

The barrows keep rolling in!

We counted four buckets as one barrow.

Lee from Keenan's also visited to see the site.  They have pledged to donate several truck loads of "soil improver" when we are ready so a huge thank you to them!

Ralf came to help out last lesson to spur us on 😊

The boys take a well deserved 5 minute rest!

By the end of the day this pile had turned into...

this one!  We shifted 21 barrows...

...into two piles

Thank you to all those who sponsored the boys - to date, we have a total of £87!

The gabions cost 31.50 each so we can now afford TWO 😊

Some folk have still pledged funds, so with just £10.50 more, we could buy three gabions so please watch this space!