14th May - Making a Hibernaculum and getting a delivery from Straughans!

Today we started to create a hibernaculum in the garden. A hibernaculum is somewhere small mammals or insects can hibernate during the cold months of the year. 

We decided to site the hibernaculum next to the pond to provide somewhere for the frogs to hide and hibernate.

The first job to be done was to dig a large hole into the earth, which would be deep enough to fit in the different layers needed to provide habitats for various species.

We needed to measure the hole and cut a length of drain pipe so that it would fit into the bottom of the hole.

We used a drill to make lots of small holes in the drain pipe.

We used some off-cuts from the log roll which we used to edge the pond.  We separated them using pliers.

The drain pipe was fitted into the bottom of the hole.

We carefully laid all the pieces of wood over the top of the drain pipe.

We covered the wood with a layer of gravel.

We covered the gravel with a layer of soil after positioning pieces of piping to provide and entry and exit to the hibernaculum for little creatures.

We covered the soil with rocks, which have been re-cycled from our old rockery.  The rocks will provide gaps and spaces for frogs and toads to hide in.

Yesterday a large amount of top soil was deposited over the school fence.  We needed to level the ground around the poly-tunnel before the cover can be put on.

Our willing group of gardeners made quick work of moving the soil.

The top soil being packed around the poly-tunnel frame.

The back of the poly-tunnel was particularly un-level and needed a large amount of soil packed underneath and around the frame.

Finished and ready for the cover which will hopefully be put on  this Friday if the weather is good.  We had some further help today from the Allotment Association, we now have some fantastic door frames.

The team have been working hard and have put together four more raised beds - they look fantastic.

We received a delivery of top-soil and manure from  W.L Straughan - an Environmental and Landscape Contractor based in Bedlington.  We have bought top soil from them a number of times in the past - it is always excellent quality.

http://wlstraughan.blogspot.co.uk/

As you can see watching the tractor and trailer deliver the manure and soil into the school car park was quite popular with the students.

5 tonnes of top-soil and 5 tonnes of manure to move now.

We have been busy making signs for our raised beds over the past few weeks, it is a good rainy day activity.

We harvested a bit more purple sprouting broccoli too.

9th May

Our wildflower bed from last year appears to have self-seeded, but we are not sure what exactly is growing?  We are hoping that this is Cosmos as it was so lovely last summer.

Our potatoes are coming up nicely - time to add a bit more soil.

Our Comfrey bed is growing daily, now that it is starting to flower the bees are buzzing around.

We spotted a few flowers on one of our Blueberry bushes.

Staking the peas.

We are continuing working on the little willow fence which will protect our fruit area of the garden, which has been under-sown with lots of wildflowers.

Here is the first one of our new raised veggie beds.  We got all of our materials for making the beds from Potts in North Shields who have been great at giving us lots of advice about what we need for our different garden projects.

http://www.johnpottssheds.co.uk/

Here is the site as we left it this weekend - we managed to get a couple of raised beds into position and have cleaned the hen house out and used the material to provide a nutrient rich base for our beds.  Next job is ordering the soil..................

7th May - Making a Bog Garden

Today we started to dig over a grassy area near the pond - this will eventually become our wildflower and wild-grass area.  

The irises are coming up in the pond.  We also put some tadpoles into the pond.  We are a bit worried that our resident ducks will eat all the tadpoles, so one of the students came up with the idea that we should keep some in a container inside and watch them change into frogs.

Our poly-tunnel frame was kindly put together over the weekend by our friends from the Shiremoor Allotment Association.  It is looking great and we can finally get an idea of what our garden will look like.

Last week the students put together a strawberry barrel.  Today they planted the barrel with some young strawberry plants.

Sarah from the RHS was on-hand today to show us how to construct a bog-garden next to our pond.

Firstly we dug a hole in the soil, making a pile of the soil we took out of the ground.

We used some of the off-cuts from the pond liner to make the hole less able to freely drain the water away.  Bog garden plants like a wet environment, but not so wet like the pond.  Sarah showed the students how to cut several holes into the liner, so that some of the water will drain away.

Here are some of the plants which we were going to put into the bog-garden.

A layer of gravel was put down on top of the liner, this will make sure the roots of the plants do not get too wet.

Soil was then shoveled back on top of the gravel.

We decided where to plant each plant by placing it on top of the soil before a hole was dug to put the plant into.

Here is our finished bog garden, which one of our students soaked with a hose to make sure all the plants had a good drink.

Here are some hanging baskets which were planted up yesterday with tomatoes and basil.

The greenhouse also got a good tidy and is looking very organised - especially with its new path made from some of our donated gravel..

Some of the tyres which were decorated by year 8, have been planted with potatoes. 

We have a lot of young plants hardening off outside in a series of cold frames - just getting ready to plant out.  The RHS sunflower seeds which were planted last week have already germinated.

Some pumpkin plants hardening off in a cold frame.

Our spring flower bed is still looking lovely, some of the wildflower seeds we sowed a couple of weeks ago are starting to germinate.  We are struggling to be able to tell them from the weeds though!

Here are a couple of our lovely double tulips.

We are starting putting a little willow fence around our fruit area - we are having a go at just looping and planting some of the willow which was left over from the willow sculpture.

May 2014 - Busy in the garden

Sarah shows us how to split our currant bushes.

We discover our first wild strawberry which we planted underneath our fruit trees last week.

Planting one of the currant bushes into the soil.

Sarah advised us to put up a string along our raspberry trench to help our our newly planted raspberry canes.

The students pushed four sturdy canes into the soil and attached some string onto each one.

We bought a Honeyberry plant to add to our fruit area  of the garden.  We discovered a piece of trellis behind the greenhouse which will help the new Honeyberry to climb up the side of the building.

Here is the site of our poly-tunnel.  We are lucky enough to have enlisted some help from a local allotment association who are coming to have a look at the poly-tunnel kit and our site over the weekend.

The students also filled up a strawberry barrel this morning.  They used compost to fill the barrel and put a old piece of gutter pipe down the middle to try to ensure that all the strawberry plants we plant will get enough water.

The Honeyberry plant is planted and has been given a good watering.

Onions are planted in one of the beds which we constructed a couple of years ago.

A bit of Enterprise.  We try to make a bit of money for the garden by selling some of the produce to staff.  We weighed the purple sprouting broccoli  and put it into some clean re-cycled plastic containers, adding some labels and prices too.

We also added to the garden produce by baking some bread this morning.  We gave a new recipe a go, tomato and asparagus foccacia bread.

All baked and ready for packaging.

Our basked of produce ready for sale.