Cake Sale Frenzy

Sat March 24th

WOW!!! it resembled a swarm of locusts descending on a field of corn.

Needless to say the cake sale was a resounding success,thanks to the kind donations of mouth watering cakes . We set up our cake sale in the main corridor of the school , the bell for break rang at 10:50 and by 11:10 we had sold out raised a staggering £80:00 for gardening club and at 20p a cake that's business.

With that sort of success we would like to arrange another sale later in the summer to buy bulbs for winter.

Unfortunately cake sale days may be numbered due to bureaucracy gone mad ! the governments "healthy eating strategy" means that these sort of events will be frowned upon. Personally I don't see how the sale of a few cakes is going to affect or influence the health of the nation , I am all for healthy eating in schools and hail the abolition of the "turkey twizzler".

Gardening continues, the seedlings have been moved outside,planters are taking shape but theirs a long way to go hope to see some noticable changes after the easter holidays.

have a happy easter

fiona

Whats Been Happening?

Sunday 18th March

Well we have been busy! last week karen and Michelle went on a spending spree, and we were finally ready to get started, we have recieved lots of donations of various pots and containers and last Friday we set to work.

We have decided to concentrate our initial efforts on the light well outside the textile room. We cleaned out the old planters and set to work planting . we had to take our trusty wheelbarrow out to gather some topsoil to fill the planters much to the amusement of pupils.

We seemed to have provided lunchtime entertainment for many pupils who found it hilarious to see all the activity,(the light well is viewed from the main corridor) we felt like the main attraction at chester zoo. But within minutes we had some new converts .

I find it quite sad that a lot of pupils think gardening is something that will seriously diminish their street cred, but we hope to change all that,and a big thankyou to the pupils who have come enthusiastically on board and and have made the project worthwhile.

We have started varnishing our bird boxes and hope to be able to put them into position this week. Mr Quinn has been a great source of knowledge in this area and came to school last week and helped us find the ideal place to put the boxes.We have chosen a small woodland area next to the sports hall , this area is a haven that is waiting to be discovered and through Mr Quinns connections we hope to do a mammoth clean up in the near future.

karen Tansey and I have also begun clearing the old pond area which we hope we can restore this spring, we have realised their is much to do and not enough time to do it in but already we can see that this is going to be a great project and we can't wait for the better weather to come so we can spend more time at break outside with our pupils "pottering around".

We have also realised that we will need more funds to buy plants for the areas we want to develop and so this wednesday(21st), we are holding a cake sale at break to be able to buy plants for the hanging baskets.

All in all we have been very productive and I am beginning to dream about gardening and find myself drawn to gardening websites, gardening flyers,and gardening books ,I can't go out these days without coming back with a packet of seeds (17p at Aldi).

It snowed this weekend and I'm glad Karen thought to bring our seedlings inside,I bought more seeds at Tesco yesterday is this an addiction?

more news later

Fiona

Tuesday March 6th

Hi this is my first blog entry so here goes,
Thanks to Karen Tansey our first 12 tomato seedlings have just reared their heads in the propagator as they say"from tiny acorns".
I first must thank a few people, thankyou Mr Quinn for the kind donations of 1 woodpecker nesting box,1 sparrow nesting box and I think it is four other nesting boxes along with 2 bat boxes for good luck,(hope to have a house warming party later this year).
Must also thank Jackie Bealing for her kind donation of £10.00 look forward to seeing herself Emily and Sam at our Garden party at the end of the school year. Thanks also to B&Q for their donation of £15.00 and Mr Fitzgerald for the donation of £100.00.
These monies will be spent with enthusiasm by us on thursday when we are going on a spending spree to B&Q.
Welcome
I am glad to announce the names of the other members of staff that have decided to come on board and make this gardening club a viable project, welcome to Margaret Salmon whose enthusiasm and organisational skills are much needed, welcome to Andrew Morley whose knowledge of the future plans and improvements to the school and his wish to include our gardening club are much appreciated and we look forward to a bright future. Welcome to Ian Singleton whose knowledge and support of the pupils especially those in"R21"will be an asset to the club,and to Sharon Gaitskell her skills in design and a desire to create some tranquil spaces around the school are also most welcome. Not forgetting all staff in room "21" whose help and support is ongoing.
Thankgoodness all the formalities are over!!

We start going green on Friday lunchtime with our founding members when we will begin with a general clean up and weeding of the areas designated for enhancement.
I will post a further update at the weekend but must not forget to thank two more people , Mrs Hardisty for the donation of a well used but full of character wheelbarrow and Mrs Mc Murdo for various assortments of plant pots and other horticultural equipment.
thanks to all Fiona Lynch