They may be small but they are carrots!!!

If we had known at how fulfilling and successful this project was going to be we would have done it sooner.The gardening club is going from strength to strength I cant begin to describe how lush the garden is but hopefully these photos will give you a glimpse. And yes we do have carrots they maybe small and very curiously shaped but they taste divine. The strawberries WOW absolutely luscious even our head Mr Fitzgerald had to come in for the tasting , he approved and he has a really sweet tooth. We cant keep up with the growing frenzy the kohlrabi and beetroot grow at an amazing rate., the beans are the envy of "Jack and the beanstalk", sweet peas, leeks, courgettes, peppers to name a few all thriving and promise to yield fine fruit.

We truly have big plans for the future but i will leave that to a later date. Thanks to everyone keep up the good work Fee

Wine and cheese evening success

A good time had by all!!

The evening was a great success as the photos illustrate. Thanks to all involved we raised a whopping £140 for gardening club. Thanks to all involved, staff who made donations to the raffle and those who helped out on the evening, and special thanks to " Bowlee garden centre" and Mike who came along with flowers for sale, hanging basket demo and kind donation of the two hanging baskets he made on the evening.

The garden felt and looked wonderful full of people who were having a relaxing time in this little oasis.

I think we can safetly say the "gardening club" is well and truly launched, and we have a wonderful nucleus of supporters behind us.

we have wonderful plans for the future and hope to see this venture grow as well as the plants in the garden at the moment.

After thought
Just spoke to my brother in the Highlands and said how the garden had brought people together reminded me of the movie "field of dreams" and the famous line "If you build it they will come!"

Photos as Promised

As you can see it is a hive of activity, Thankyou so much to Mr Barker and Mr Toland for their DIY expertise,. A beautiful day in the garden lots of visitors and Michelle held her year11 revision class outside today, still lotsto do but it now really does feel like a garden.

Fiona

Alls well in the garden!!

Mon 30Th April
This photo was taken 1 month ago , two of our young gardeners transplanting our carrot seedlings.
I am very eager to add some photos of our garden 1 Month later as our grey concrete garden area has been transformed to an oasis of colour and life.

• We have been extremely busy and I must say up to now very succesful. here is a list of what is growing.

• Carrots, looking very healthy
• Strawberries, absolutely fantastic
• Sweet peas, growing and thriving around a cane tripod
• Sunflowers , all vieing for first place in the competition
• Tomatoes ,almost ready to plant out
• Beetroot, looking healthy
• Broad and haricot beans
• Kohlrabi, luscious
• Coriander ,becoming robust
• Marigolds
• Freesias
• Pansies
• Lobelia
• Geraniums
• Fuschia

The list goes on.....

We are so proud and pleased ,our school day starts with a feeling of expectation as we go and check on our treasured flora.The pupils have been wonderful ,nature must have a way of recognizing their inexperienced and rough handling and forgives them for this and rewards them with its resilience.

To add to the ambience of our garden ,Rachel Judge has bought us two picnic tables and two benches. This was funded from the "Peer support" funds and I feel the Peer supporters will enjoy meeting their young pupils in a comfortable tranquil area. Thanks to Michelle and Sharon for their continued support and once year 11 course work is over they can also enjoy the gardens pleasures.Thanks also to all the staff who have donated plants ,garden equipment etc.

UPCOMING EVENTS

We are holding a wine and cheese evening along with a "How to make a hanging basket" demonstration. This will take place on Wed 23rd of May and will also include a talk on our progress and plans for the future.

karen and I are more than pleased with how things are progressing, and at how much pleasure we have gained doing it.

The primary school across the road has just started a garden club and we plan to invite some year 6 members along so they can see what is in store for them at high school and hopefully gain some new members and make their transission to high school a thing to look forward to.

I was struck by how some pupils did not realise that carrots grew underground, and that sunflowers burst out from the seeds they had planted,these little things make the project worthwhile.

Oh yes, I saw a butterfly in the garden today and also a Pied Wagtail hopefully they will tell their friends!

Pictures coming soon

Fiona

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