Gardening Club: House Keeping and Seed Sowing

The poor weather doesn’t seem to affect the weeds!

The prolonged cold weather delayed the start of Gardening Club this year, as I was mindful of my young gardeners and the disappointment they would feel, if Gardening Club had started for the sake of starting and all their carefully sown seeds and the resulting seedlings, had succumbed to the bitter cold, hard frosts, waterlogged ground and/or snow. No, waiting those few extra weeks was worth it and Gardening Club has now begun. Unfortunately the miserable, cold weather hadn’t done anything to curtail the growth of the weeds and our long bed was a carpet of green …… largely unwanted green at that, although there were some onions in there somewhere!

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The hidden tunnel – a school garden update

Lovely, lush plums ….. unfortunately the wasps agree!

I am ashamed to say that as much as my own garden has received minimal attention this year for a variety of reasons, the school garden has received even less than that, bordering on none at all, although I did do a decent session of weeding and clearing early in the year. Events at the start of the year, regards my anaemia and the ensuing tests and appointments that have dogged the months since, knocked me for six and it was only in the last few weeks that I began to feel more like myself but with this improvement has come guilt over the dire state of my own beloved vegetable plot, a guilt which was further compounded when I saw the state of the school raised beds when the school reopened on Tuesday. As for the poly tunnel, well I didn’t even think about walking round to the back of the building and looking in on that, as there was nothing growing in it!

Gardening Club: getting started

The fruit trees hold the promise of a plentiful harvest

Seventeen children signed up for Gardening Club this time around, split over two sessions per week but as they are mostly from the younger classes, each session is only 15 to 20 minutes long, depending on what needs to be done. Within the two groups we have two children responsible for watering and weeding the plants in the Foundation Area and another two older children, watering the plants in the poly tunnel.

The Garden Share Collective: July 2014

The summer is marching along at a staggering pace and with the end of the school year within touching distance, comes the monthly gentle reminder from Lizzie, for the next Garden Share Collective post. Lots has been happening this last month and we’ve even had our first harvests of the year, albeit small ones, so here is the July update for Gardening Club and the school garden.

The Garden Share Collective: May 2014

With the months passing at what seems to be warp speed, I was taken a little by surprise to realise that it was The Garden Share Collective time again. Mind you along with Lizzies’ usual words of encouragement, her reminder email also brought with it the welcome news that she had been safely delivered of a new baby, a little girl called Isla Rose. So on behalf of all those of us at Mudville and the members of Gardening Club, I’d like to wish Lizzie and Roy many congratulations and offer a warm welcome to baby Isla.

Gardening Club: the Poly Tunnel moved

The tunnel is now 10m closer to the vegetable patch which isn’t a bad thing really

The school poly tunnel is an essential piece of equipment when it comes to Gardening Club and the sowing of seeds and potting on of seedlings etc. and so when I turned up at the school to be asked if I could just pop round to the tunnel, I wasn’t at all concerned.

“We need to move the poly tunnel,” the Head Teacher told me and I have to admit, my stomach sank.

The Garden Share Collective: February 2014

It only seems like yesterday that I was posting Januarys’ Garden Share Collective article and so it was a bit of a surprise to find Lizzie’s gentle reminder in my inbox the other day.

Obviously there isn’t a great deal to report at the moment, as here in the UK we are still in the throes of winter, with rain, freezing temperatures and gale force winds howling around the cottage as I type.

The Garden Share Collective: November 2013

I can’t quite believe how fast the months are passing by and that it is already time to start thinking about my contribution to the Garden Share Collective for November. To be honest, I’m in a bit of a quandary because the beds are still not emptied at school and we are still picking tomatoes and runner beans but I like to think that this is Mother Natures way to compensate for the delayed start to the growing season.

Gardening Club: We’ve got a greenhouse …..

…… actually we had three but I’ll get to that in a moment. Part of the lottery grant we received in 2011, was for the building of a plastic bottle greenhouse which were all the rage at the time but by the time the polytunnel raised beds, shed and fruit trees had been installed, there really wasn’t any room for the greenhouse.

Mind you as we now had a substantial polytunnel, the need for a greenhouse wasn’t very urgent and so we applied for and got change of use for that portion of the grant, which enabled the school to purchase the things we did need for the garden and which hadn’t been included, such as insect netting, propagators, pots, seeds, organic soil enrichers, compost and various basic garden items essential to the success of a vegetable plot.

Gardening Club: Planting out at last

Lettuces planted by the Foundation and Year 1 Gardening Club members

With the polytunnel staging groaning under the sheer weight of plants and not a spare inch available for the next round of seedlings, it was with a huge sense of relief that I finally got some of the plants into the ground, with the help of the Monday gardening group.

Seven courgettes, three pumpkins and two dozen assorted salads and lettuce plants made the transition, freeing up a significant amount of space which will come in handy when I pot up the chillis and newly emerged second sowing of beans, next week.