21st of May - Poly-tunnel doors and planting out.

Our friends from the Shiremoor Allotments Association came to work on our poly-tunnel today, this time to put in the ends of the tunnel.

They had come up with some excellent ideas about how we can ventilate the poly-tunnel in the summer by putting in netting in a couple of the panels, this will allow the air to circulate, but will not let the bugs in.  They also created some removable perspex panels which we can add in the colder months of the year.  We happily were able to use some perspex that we salvaged from some old display boards in school which were cut down and shaped to fit.

This is the inside of the poly-tunnel today - some hanging baskets have been put up, and some tomatoes are ready for potting on tomorrow.

It was a lovely day here - temperatures reached 30 degrees in the poly-tunnel today!

Our tadpoles are changing shape and are slowly getting the beginnings of legs. 

Today some of our Yr 9 students were helping in the garden with planting some flowers in old tires.

Kale planted in one of our new raised beds.  

Pumpkin plants planted in some of the tires which were decorated by our Yr 8 Art class.

Sweetcorn planted in another raised bed - there are some outdoor tomatoes planted in there too,

More veggies planted out.

Sweetcorn and our fantastic new RHS plaque for our Level 5 garden.

Marigolds being planted at the end of one of the bed.  We have tried to grow a lot of marigolds as they are good at keeping some garden pests away from the plants.

Filling up some large planters for flowers.

We have had to move our fennel plants to a sunnier spot in the garden - they didn't seem to be very happy growing in our shady herb bed.

We filled a large planter with a mixture of manure and soil and planted our rhubarb plant inside.

Our Yr 9 students learnt about how to transplant seedlings today.

Our garden is starting to fill up as we transplant seedlings into our new raised beds.

Watering the seedlings with the hosepipe is quite a popular job with the students.

We spotted some yellow irises in the pond just starting to bloom.  Over the weekend our pond as totally cleared, all the material which gathered in the water when the surrounding buildings were demolished has now settled to the bottom of the pond.  We were delighted to spot a tadpole hiding on the bottom and even a couple of pond-skaters on the surface.

We also spotted some cherries growing in our little orchard.