May is always a manic month in the garden, with flowers and vegetables taking on a life of their own and tender annuals bulging in their pots sat on the windowsill, waiting to be released into the fresh air. This May is no different! The Market Cart has a beautiful selection of salad leaves on it for anybody who is after some cut-and-come-back fresh leaves, and the team are preparing for the big lavender sale which the Market Cart will be hosting over at the Rowledge Village Fayre on Thursday 2 June between 12 and 5pm. Please do come and say hello if you are planning on attending! All monies raised will be going back into the garden, as investments in some of our next exciting projects.
We have also been in contact with the RHS Connected Communities and Gardening for Schools teams who have written a wonderful article on our school garden on their website: https://schoolgardening.rhs.org.uk/News/News-results/South-East/2022/May/Rowledge-C-of-E-Primary-School We hope to see you over at the Recreation Ground on Thursday for the Fayre!
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It has been a busy week in the garden this week getting ready for the next round of planting in the raised vegetable beds.
Reception class were out today sowing their pumpkin seeds for the ‘Farnham in Bloom’ competition with Julia Norfolk and Tim Peerless, as well as harvesting the spring greens which were planted last year and which some of the pupils took home today. The team are currently trying to source the resources to install a new raised bed next to the potting shed in which to grow out pumpkins which can grow to enormous sizes. The existing beds are now ready for courgette and sweetcorn plants which will be transplanted into them at the start of the summer term thanks to some hard graft by Flora Rigg and Reception class today in getting the beds cleared. Thanks to very generous donations we now also have a row of raspberry plants in the garden and some beautiful “lambs ears” in the pollinator planter (which has been host to a beautiful moth this week which remains to be identified). A good week had by all and everyone and everything very grateful for the rain! Thankfully the much needed rain on Wednesday didn't hamper the great work of Year 1 in the garden on Thursday!
Year 1 were out potting on the lavender plants which they started caring for in the Autumn term with a helping hand from Alex May. They also helped sow our calendula seeds which we will be growing and giving away to the local community as part of the RHS Connected Communities #growwell scheme. A big shout out to Flora Rigg for the donation of some beautiful pelargoniums (the tender version of the hardy geraniums which we now have in the pollinator planter) and some lavender which are now cheering up the KS1 playground and which Reception class will be tending to. The vegetables sown by Year 3 a few weeks ago have enjoyed the rainwater and we now have radish, lettuce and carrot seedlings popping through the compost - much to the delight of the pupils! We have also received lots of wonderful donations this week including some beautiful smelling apple mint, some Nicotiana seedlings for potting on for our summer displays and some wild bird seed from the Farnham Lions club. Due to allergies we sadly aren't allowed to use the wild bird seed in school (we stick to pure sunflower hearts and seeds) but they are now up on the Market Cart with a suggested donation request of £5 and any monies raised will be heading straight to the compost kitty. We had some tomato plants on the Market Cart earlier in the week as well which were snapped up by our enthusiastic growers. Thank you again to all of our wonderful supporters. In exciting news, we are pleased to announce that we will be taking part in the "Farnham in Bloom" scheme this year and will be participating in the "tallest sunflower", "largest pumpkin" and "best kept school garden" classes. Proceedings will be kicking off on Thursday 19th May 2 - 3pm when Reception class will be planting their pumpkin seeds. We would LOVE some grandparents / neighbours/ local residents / parents to come along and join us in getting the pupils planting at the session. Please give us a shout if you would like to come and join the fun! We are delighted to be participating in the "Grow Well" scheme being run by the RHS Communities team this spring.
"Grow Well is a new RHS Communities initiative designed to highlight and share the wellbeing benefits and positive power of plants. Connecting with nature and getting your hands muddy is a great way to clear your mind – and there’s a reason for that. It is increasingly acknowledged that growing and caring for plants supports better physical, social and mental health. Research has shown that gardening can reduce depression and anxiety, and last year the RHS found that those who garden every day have wellbeing scores of 6.6% higher than people who don’t do any gardening at all." Pupils will be planting our Calendula seeds over the coming weeks to add some pollinator friendly colour to the garden. The Calendula plants will also act as brilliant companion plants to help protect our organic vegetables from nibblers. If you would like to get involved, please do get in contact using the details on the "How to get involved" link at the top of the page. The second half of Year 3 were out today doing various jobs in the garden including maintaining the strawberry bed, sowing wildflower seeds and companion plants in the Pollinator Planter, sowing lettuce seeds to compliment their other salad crops and watering their potato plants. The soil is warming up and everything will soon be ramping up for the summer….come on strawberries!!
The team are delighted to announce the launch of the school’s beautiful new Community Market Cart!
The cart will spend most of its time on the school driveway where it will be accessible to school families and local residents alike and is intended to act as a “gardening swap shop” between the school and wider community. The hope is that anyone and everyone will use it to donate, swap or take home surplus fruit and vegetable produce, saplings, plants and seeds. Whilst donations are always welcomed (and will be put directly into the school garden’s compost fund) they are never obligatory. The Market Cart will also be host to a permanent herb garden which people are encouraged to take cuttings from rather than buying pots from the supermarket and which the pupils will maintain. Paper bags and scissors are available for cutting what you need. As always, we are hugely grateful for anything which you may wish to donate. Surplus tomato plants, your glut of rhubarb or your unwanted packets of seeds - they will all be put to good use by someone. We are also still welcoming old supermarket pots of herbs which the children can bring back to life with some TLC. Please feel free to get in contact if you have any queries: [email protected] Watch this space for lots of exciting events taking place this summer which the pupils will be making the most of the cart for. We would like to extend our thanks again to the RHS for their support for the project as part of their Connected Communities Scheme as well as to Councillor David Ashcroft and East Hampshire District Council who also helped to fund the project. Half of year 3 were out in the garden today sowing some seeds to support their curriculum learning about plants this term. They sowed 2 beds of radishes, 2 beds of carrots and some tomato plants for growing on in the potting shed. On top of that they topped up and watered their charlotte potato sacks which are doing well and growing strongly. The rest of the class will be out next week.
William from Year 5 brought in a wonderful pot of chilli plants which he has been growing on the windowsill at home and wanted to share with the school. With a little guidance he potted them on into individual containers which are now very happy on the potting shed shelf and will grow on under his care. Hopefully some may make it onto the new Market Cart for sharing with his friends later in the term! Well done William! The Easter holidays has seen a flurry of activity in the school garden. On Wednesday 13th April the Busy Bees team hosted 'The Big Dig' family gardening day which saw lots of families come along to enjoy the garden and to install and plant up our new "Pollinator Planter". The planter has been filled with a wide variety of annual and perennial plants which we hope will provide nectar and pollen to pollinators across the entire year. From hardy geraniums to lavender, verbascum, buddleia, echinachea, aster, viburnum and sunflowers, the planter will soon be a bee and butterfly friendly hang-out. On Thursday 21st April the team met again to watch the installation of our long awaited potting shed which has been funded through generous donations from the RHS (Connected Communities scheme), The Farnham Round Table and FORS. We got straight to work in using it and the pupils have already sown seeds for numerous summer annuals to give some colour and excitement to the school grounds. Thank you to everyone who came along and made the days such a success. Please get in contact if you are interested in getting involved in the school garden. No experience in gardening is necessary, we welcome families of pupils at the school as well as residents from the local area who are just keen to get outside and enjoy some company and sunshine.
Open to pupils and their families as well as the wider community, we would love to see as many local residents as possible at our upcoming "Big Dig" gardening event down at the school garden on Wednesday 13th April when the school is closed for Easter. Please do get in contact if you would like to join us! From constructing and filling our new "pollinator planter" to sowing seeds and potting on plants, there are jobs for everyone and no gardening experience is necessary.
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Sarah WomersleyBusy Bees Gardening & Wildlife Club Volunteer Archives
October 2023
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