Seedlings and a nest of duck eggs

Tomato seedlings potted on from trays - we are trying a few different varieties this year.

Cucumber seedlings.

Sweetcorn seedlings, at the moment they look quite like little blades of grass.

Potting some herbs inside the poly-tunnel.

Little bay cuttings, which have been potted up.

Our poly-tunnel is beginning to look rather full already.  We have had some cold days recently - but on Friday it was about 30 degrees.

Our hens enjoying a variety of fresh produce discarded by a local supermarket.  They love the fresh salad bags, cherry tomatoes and strawberries.  Sprouts, carrots and broccoli tend to be eaten last!

Our purple sprouting broccoli is just beginning to form little florets and should be ready for picking very soon.

The ducks have started to use the duck house, they have been sleeping outside all through the winter.  We found a nest today with three eggs inside - all cold, so the ducks are not ready to try and hatch any eggs just yet.

Building sheds and watching things grow.

Our potatoes have been put into a box to 'chit' in the light - we will plant them in the soil in a few weeks.  One of our students watered them by mistake - so they have all been carefully dried, hopefully they won't go mouldy. 

The Scholarship shed under construction - the walls are up.

The doors are on - it just needs a roof.

The finished shed, complete with roof, felting and a storage box for the scholarship equipment.  The student should now be able to access their tools next to their raised beds.

We were also lucky enough to be given a damaged shed from B&Q, it was destined for the skip, a bit of TLC from our Technology teacher and it will be as good as new.

Last year's wild-flowers have been moved onto the compost heap - the ducks enjoyed eating all of the seeds.

Our ducks had been hiding their eggs underneath the straw in their house - they are not nesting yet as they leave the eggs during the day.  We are thinking of trying to hatch some when the weather warms up.

Our ducks have been very naughty the past few days, we have had them in the garden for about 6 months and they have never tried to escape - 5 times today they squeezed underneath the perimeter fence and waddled out into the car park and the football pitch.

Our little orchard - the fruit trees are just beginning to bud.

Primulas for Mothers Day

The Primulas were potted up into re-cycled tin cans and were sold to students on one of our stalls.

Miniature tulips growing in the poly-tunnel - these were planted by students when they were learning about co-ordinates.

The forced rhubarb.

Seeds germinating in the poly-tunnel

Borage seems to be growing really well

Okra and onion sets.

Tomatoes potted on inside EPICC

Cucumbers and baby chilli plants

The sweetcorn has germinated really fast this year.

Herbs - the herbs have been taken out of the raised beds and put into pots.  We need the room for all the plants we have germinating in the poly-tunnel and inside EPICC.

Small Bay plants.

The Scholarship group have been working the soil in their raised beds, top soil has been raked smooth.

Students have been learning how to use a garden line to ensure that rows are planted straight.

Early March - planting the sensory garden

The students have been working over the past few weeks to design and build a sensory garden within our garden area.  Raised beds have been constructed out of decking boards, they carefully planned out a shape which fitted around our pond.  They used their functional maths skills to measure the boards, cutting them to create the shape they wanted.

It was really hard work to dig out all the grass and roots from the bottom of each bed.

The plants which had been given to us by Dobbies Garden centre have been cared for in our poly-tunnel for the past few weeks.  We brought all the plants outside and decided where they should be planted.

We learnt about how tall each plant was going to grow and thought about where each plant would look best.  

We talked about symmetry and how making a symmetrical pattern can look really nice in a garden.

The soil was raked nice and smooth before the plants were planted.

We removed the pots from the plants and looked at the roots.

Some of the plants had become very pot-bound.  Christine explained that the roots needed to be loosened so that the plant would put out new roots and grow well in the raised beds.

When we had decided where each plant should go, a hole was dug in the raised bed using a trowel - the students estimated the size by looking at the size and shape of each pot.

This is a Yuka plant - we were surprised to see the roots looked a bit like worms when we took the pot off.  This plant should grow until it is about 5ft tall, we decided to put this plant at the back behind our bench - which we have not built yet.

Our borage we planted during half-term has started to germinate, you can just see the first shoots appearing in the pot.

We are experimenting this year and have planted some Okra seeds.

Onion sets planted in the poly-tunnel

Primulas - for a Mothers Day stall later in the Month.

The sensory garden getting watered in.

We will need to make sure the plants get well watered over the next few weeks.

The sensory bed as we left it today - you can also see the ducks have been fenced out of some of the garden, just to keep them away from the young plants we will be putting into the raised beds.  When we first got the ducks they couldn't work out how to get into the raised beds - putting wood chip on the paths has made it easier for the ducks to get in and out of the raised beds!

More seeds germinating in the greenhouse in our little micro-climate.