12th June - Developments in the poly-tunnel and some Elderflower Cordial

Our peas are creeping up the netting and seem to need weaving in and out every few days.

It was a hot day today so we needed to move the sprinkler to give our trees and wildflowers a bit of a water.

Pumpkin patch - we knew that we would not be able to get everything done in the garden extension this year, so we decided to plant the excess pumpkins on a pile of soil that we have not yet managed to shift - hopefully they will take root and climb all over the soil?

Our vine has been moved inside the poly-tunnel, we still have to work out where we should plant it.

This is one of our Aubergine plants, we were pleased to notice some flowers appearing today.

Some of the chili plants are also beginning to flower.

This chili plant already has some chilies growing on it.

This is a melon plant which we planted last week, it has already started to creep along the soil and has sent out some flowers.

Bush tomato plants in hanging baskets - lots of flowers on there at the moment.

Broad beans growing outside in an old tire.

The first cornflower to come out in our raised bed.

Mizuna growing in the greenhouse.

We were able to sell a few things from the greenhouse today, a bit of a mixed salad bag with some Mizuna and spinach plus a bunch of chives and sage.  Our hens are laying quite well at the moment, although if the good weather continues we will have to look to putting some shade in the hen run.

Some lovely poppies growing around school.

Last year we made some Elderflower Cordial which has rather an unusual taste but the students liked it, so we decided to repeat the recipe this year.  This afternoon we went out and picked some Elderflower heads, we are lucky as our school field has lots of trees around the edge, including Elder.

We needed about 20 Elderflower heads for the recipe, which need to be left in a syrup of sugar and water, with some lemon rind and juice for 24 hours.

11th June - Flowers in the Garden and a few Strawberries

Today we have been planting out the last of our plug plants which we received from entering into Cultivation Street.

Here is a barrel which was planted up by the students a few weeks ago, the flowers are all starting to come out now and look very nice outside the EPICC unit.

One of our courgette plants is starting to produce some flowers - so maybe we will see some courgettes before we break up for the school holidays?

We were given some plants to add to our bog garden, some Hostas, and a variety of other plants which we can't remember the names of!

We did a bit of weeding in and around the orchard area and discovered some ripening strawberries.

A marigold inside one of our raised beds.

Some flowers inside our flower bed - we have planted a variety of different kinds of flower, so hopefully it will begin to look really colourful in the next few weeks.

We are not really sure what this purple flower is?

We received 12 small rosemary plants and have added them to our herb bed.

One of our window boxes, planted up with fuchsias, petunias and maybe some marigolds?

Some fantastic looking poppies waiting to flower.

We have also been very busy making sure that everything is watered - on a hot day like today, the poly-tunnel needs to be watered twice a day.

6th June - Tidying the Willow and Science in the garden.

The grass is starting to grow all the way through the bike frame, we decided it was time to give it a bit of a trim - the only way to do this was with a pair of scissors.

We found it quite a therapeutic activity snipping away at the long grass between the spokes of the wheels - the willow bike looks a lot tidier now.

The Yr 8 Science students were out in the garden today having a look in our poly-tunnel at the different plants we have planted.  They also had a hunt around the garden to see what insects they could find.

They had a good look at our tank of tadpoles, and also found snails, a lady-bird, and a spider.

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We decided that it was about time to put the rest of the tadpoles into the pond as there would be lots of things for the tadpoles to eat.

While we were putting the tadpoles into the pond we noticed that the ones we put in the pond a few weeks ago were a lot bigger.  One of the students managed to catch this one, it has back legs and is over twice the size of the ones we have had inside?

A courgette plant which is just starting to produce a few buds.

A few cherries starting to change colour.

Our willow dome looks completely different now, it has all sprouted and has greened up, the grass is very long and looks more like a meadow at the moment - but we have decided that we quite like it looking like this.

Our comfrey is buzzing with bees and is now huge.

Another home-made cloche, made from water-pipe and netting to keep the butterflies off our little cauliflower plants.

One of our scare-crows near the comfrey bed.

Potatoes are growing really big now.

Onions and garlic

The first few peas on our pea wigwam - apparently they were very tasty.

Can anyone help identify this flower - we have an entire bed of this growing in what was our wildflower bed last year?  The bees certainly like it, but we don't know what it is?

4th June - A wet day in the garden

Today we really were able to experience the benefit of having a indoor space to work in - it was such a rainy day it was great to have the poly-tunnel to continue to work in the garden.

 

The seedlings we have been growing in the greenhouse have really shot up over the half-term break.

Coriander, and spinach - I think?

Leeks, squash and basil.

Our overwintering Japanese onions were picked today.  They won't really grow much more and we need the space for the cauliflower plants.

Over the holiday raised beds have been built and filled with a mix of manure and top-soil, here we are setting some young plants out to try to make best use of the space.

  

We read that sea-gulls and other birds may peck the poly-tunnel plastic, so we found some bird of prey stickers on-line to stick onto the roof to try to deter birds from landing on the roof.

Planting our young cucumber plants, we have also planted a few marigolds in-between.

The raised bed at the other side of the poly-tunnel has been planted up, we also have a lot of tomato plants planted in pots.

Young chili plants, with a marigold plant and I think a melon plant in the foreground?

 

We bought a couple of grafted Aubergine plants as we are keen to give growing Aubergines a go now that we have a poly-tunnel.

The yellow irises have come out over the holiday, also a cloche has been made using some water pipe and some netting to keep the butterflies off the young kale plants.

The seeds we sowed underneath the fruit trees have started to grow, the ground is very wet at the moment and we are struggling to be able to tell the weeds from the flowers?

Some leek seedlings being transplanted into one of our new raised beds.  The piece of wood resting over the top of the bed helps to keep the line of seedlings straight.

Beans and peas growing in one of the raised beds.  The white sticks have been liberated from a skip.

Sweetcorn, outdoor tomatoes and courgettes growing with some marigolds, everything is starting to grow we could do with some sunshine to dry things off!