Tuesday 31^st January 2017

Winter Wonderland

 

After a winter of business preparation sessions with Siobhan…it was time to start the hard work again!

On a cold, January day we set off for a walk along the fields to our allotment plot. We are so lucky to be able to live and work here with stunning views of the Blyth Valley to accompany us along the way. With a little impromptu geography, the pupils were able to pinpoint both Blythburgh water tower and Southwold lighthouse from the ridge. Wonderful exercise to be out in the fresh air too...we estimated 3000 steps to the allotment and back!

On arrival it became clear just how close the new houses were to our plot. The shadow cast be the nearest house covered one half of our allotment…and this half was still frozen solid so we decided to focus our efforts on removing the weeds from the half of the plot that was still in sunlight. With a little further geography we worked out that the sun would be overhead by the time the planting season was in full swing so we weren’t too worried about the present shadow

 

 
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So using our knowledge of weeds…we set to work! The weeds with shallow roots we decided to pull out and compost. The weeds with tap roots or runners we decided to dig out, collect, bag and destroy in the school bin. With all of our hard work the last thing we needed were weeds growing back through our perfect soil!

By the end of the session one half of the allotment was complete. We could now cover that section in weed suppressant…another calculation/area job for the year 5/6 class to have an opportunity to apply their learning!

Our next challenge w as to dig over the remaining half of the plot...we would then be ready to construct and fit our six raised beds into place.