Our Amazing Willow Bike!!

We were given a old racing bike from a local scheme who teach some of our students how to fix and re-build bikes.

With the skills of our Technology teacher the brakes were removed from the bike and a stand was made to support the bike in the ground.

Putting some holes into the ground for the willow.

One of our students makes sure the bike is sturdy and won't fall over.

The willow is put into the holes and carefully wrapped around the bike.

We made willow circles to attach to the wheels.

We learnt that willow comes in many different colours, yellow, orange, black, brown, green and a lovely dark red.

Some willow is much more flexible than others.

A green willow circle was made for a front light

And a red willow circle for the back light.

We decided to try to make a man to sit on the bike.  Willow was plaited to make arms and a cone shape was made for the body.

It was fairly tricky to get everything attached together but we managed it in the end,

Some of the willow will take root and grow, other parts will change colour as the sculpture ages.

We even made a cycle helmet for the willow man using the skills that we learnt this morning.

Thanks Ruth from Sylvan Skills and Sarah from The RHS we had a great morning and learnt lots of new skills.  Our willow bike and willow dome both look fantastic.

Willow weaving with The RHS and Sylvan Skills

 Today we had the pleasure of working with Sarah and Ruth Thompson from Sylvan Skills

http://www.sylvanskills.co.uk/

Fetching the willow around to the site where the structure was going to be created.

Getting the first few pieces of willow in the ground.

We were using Biomass willow which grows incredibly quickly.  The pieces we used to create this structure were only a year old.

The structure is starting to take shape - the front of the structure was woven together.

Filling in and weaving the sides

We used cable ties to keep the willow attached.

We made some willow circles to attach to the structure to create windows.

Making a willow ball - which we used later as a head for our cyclist.

Making a few willow stars

The finished willow dome - it looks great and fits our garden bench in beautifully.

Our Gardeners appear in The Chronicle

Our Students appeared in an article about our morning at Plantsworld in The Chronicle.

The full article can be found at:

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/local-news/community-news-brief-saturday-march-6892953

Releasing some frogs into the pond - 30th March

This weekend we were given some frogs to put into the pond - normally we would wait until they could be released by the students at school - but we didn't have anywhere to put them, so we thought it was best they went straight into the pond.

Releasing the frogs.

The frogs swimming away in their new home.

Potting some seeds and preparing a stall for Mothers Day

Today we started to prepare a little stall for Mothers Day.

We bought some primulas from Plantsworld yesterday, we wrapped them in tissue paper and tied them with some ribbon.  We will sell them tomorrow for students to take home for Mothers Day on Sunday.

We have a lot of seeds germinating at the moment, and have taken over just about every sunny window sill we have been allowed.

These are Butternut Squash plants which were planted a few weeks ago.

A new plant we have never grown before - gherkins!

Red onion sets which have been planted today.

26th March - A visit to Plantsworld

Sarah from the RHS had arranged for us to visit Plantsworld in Gosforth to do a bit of planting.

http://www.plantsworld.co.uk/

Our students helped to plant some bean seeds.

And also had a good look around the glasshouse to see if there were any ideas we could borrow when we put up our poly-tunnel later this year.  We got some great ideas and hints about how to put the poly-tunnel up and what to put inside.

Plantsworld also had some baby chicks which we enjoyed looking at.

We bought a couple of globe artichoke plants to add to our herb bed, hopefully they will grow into large healthy plants.

Tulips are coming up in our flower bed.

I think these may be some Narcissus?

We planted some broccoli plants at the end of the summer last year - we have been waiting and waiting to see if anything was actually going to grow, finally we noticed that some purple sprouting broccoli was starting to appear.

Potatoes planted inside tyres.

Some signs of seeds sprouting in our wildflower bed.