As the holidays approach we usually put together a watering rota for the school garden. If you are free to take your children down to the garden on a particular week over the summer to water the plants, please contact Helen at hjrolph@gmail.com as this will be a great help.

There are plenty of activities for the children to enjoy in the garden over the holidays, including picking the plums (usually ripe in July), picking herbs (rosemary, sage, chives), sweet peas (should be flowering at the end of July), digging large holes (always popular!) as well as looking for bugs and bees around the ‘bug hotel’ (there are magnifying glasses in the garden storage box) and feeding the birds (we have various bird feeders around the garden).

Thank you also to everyone who has donated plants, tidied up the garden, planted up and watered the many pots, fed the birds and looked after the bug hotel.

Garden Activity 2015-16

We have so far done the following in the school garden:

• set up the compost bins, with small recycling buckets for the children to take into the canteen for apple cores (we ideally need teacher help with this)
• tidied up the wildlife area and set up two wildlife ponds to attract birds, insects and amphibians to the garden and increase biodiversity
• set up a “bird and bee” feeding zone to cover up the derelict area in the bit of playground behind the Afty
• planted up hanging baskets and tubs to make the area more welcoming (to humans as well as wildlife!)
• planted onions and cabbages in the veg plot
• set up a “mud pie” zone and we will set up a “digging only” zone for children who just want to have a good dig and find some worms etc.

Other plans include:

• growing some vegetables from seed
• setting up another herb garden and encourage children and parents to pick the herbs on their way to/from school
• continue improving the habitat in the wildlife garden (planting more woodland plants)
• continue re-planting the many pots around the school playground
• try and get the raised beds in the garden fixed as they are completely rotten
• restart the wormery – we need to find a parent volunteer to take this on

Special thanks from the Parent Council: A particular thank you is due to Helen, who has been working committedly and tirelessly on the various floral and other gardening aspects around the school. Without her fantastic contribution, the garden, pots, etc., would, quite frankly, go to… erm… pot!