We've had a great time with our two groups since September.
Autumn is the time for harvesting produce and tidying up the garden for the winter.
The slow start to the Spring has been reflected in somewhat less produce than last year, but we have had a superb crop of apples, all three of the trees have produced really good crops.
Children from various classes have enjoyed them, especially after their What's Under Your Feet sessions.
We've sown some seeds ready for next spring and taken cuttings of lavender, rosemary, black currents and a rose bush. We've also planted daffodils around the school site ready for the Spring.
In our last sessions we cooked our produce to create soup. Ingredients included onions, shallots, leeks,potatoes, tomatoes, sweet corn, chard, courgettes and squashes.
The children then served the finished product to their classes.
Well done to everyone for all your enthusiastic work. Gardening Club will be back after the February Half-Term, when we hope to welcome some new members as well as the "old hands".
Year 6:
Year 4:
July 20th
We had an end of term picnic with the Year 5 group (Y6 were at Cotswold Water Park).
We also completed our bug hotels and positioned them around the garden area and school.
July 13th
Year 5 group decorated their bug hotels.
July 7th
The Year 3 & 4 group decorated giant plant labels.
July 6th
The Year 5 & 6 group started working on assembling mini bug hotels to position around the school site.
June 29th & 30th
On Tuesday the Year 5 & 6 groups planted out some more tomatoes, potted on purple sprouting, did weeding and helped to prune our willow teepee.
On Wednesday 30th, the Year 3 group made good use of the prunings by making some decorative picket fences around some of the plots.
They also watered the planting containers under the covered area and the wellies in Reception's outside space.
Lilie from Year 4 helped Mr Birley transplant some wildflowers which were growing in one of the veg plots to the wildflower meadow area.
Soft fruit season is upon us - we have had strawberries for a couple of weeks and should have raspberries, loganberries and gooseberries soon.
June 22nd:
As well as planting tomatoes, watering and weeding, this week Our Year 5 and 6 children got creative with natural materials.
We're starting to get some produce: the first strawberries with more to come, and broad beans.
June 23rd:
The Year 3 and 4 children had a busy time, watering, weeding, moving some herb plants to clear some more space, finding all sorts of creatures and even spotting our resident newt in the pond!
June 2021:
After a very slow start to the Spring - cold and dry then wet, now hot and dry - things are beginning to get started in the garden area.
Before half term we did some site clearing, planted seeds for parsnips, pumpkins, carrots, broad beans, leeks, courgettes and sweet corn.
We are now planting many of these out.
The Year 6 members planted rosemary, lavender and sage cuttings, that we took in the Autumn, in various planters around school, using compost made in our own compost bin. Zero carbon and zero cost!
Year 5 have been keeping the planters and hanging baskets watered.
Since half term we have been running sessions with Year 5 & 6 on the same day but in separate groups, Mr Birley has returned to the the team to supervise Year 6 members. We also now have some very enthusiastic Year 3 and 4 members on Wednesday with a similar arrangement - more about their sessions soon.
Both groups have done a great job adding colour to the Reception outside play area by planting flowering plants in wellies - a great piece of up-cycling. You can see Year 5 at work on this project below. Year 3 did a great job too!
Year 5 before half-term:
Year 6 working on planters:
Welly Planting & Year 6 working with Mr Birley: