Saturday 25th April 2017

The BIG dig

On Saturday we held a 'Big Dig' event to try and increase our growing potential. On a cool, cloudy Saturday morning we met with a number of Adnams staff and other adults and children that had kindly given up their Saturday morning to help us with our 'Food for thought' project. The day was well supported with homemade cakes and tea and by the end of the morning after much hard work, we had almost doubled our growing potential!

We had already identified parcels of under-used land that would be suitable for growing crops. The day started with a grand clear out, digging out and cutting back shrubs as well as digging out some pieces of play equipment that would later be relocated. This was to be the space for our poly tunnel which will help us to grow our tomatoes and cucumbers and give us a nice, sheltered spot to grow our seedlings on.

The next job was to develop new raised beds on the school site itself. We had already identified an area at the side of the school which would ‘contain’ our growing space. After lots of measuring, cutting and joining we finally had another 3 raised beds completed! Together with a further raised bed installed next to the existing 3 (near the swimming pool area).

The next job was to work on the allotment to complete the raised beds there. After transporting a dozen or so bags of compost (kindly donated by Wyevale nurseries) we were able to weed out most of the grass runners and had most of the raised beds on site ready to begin planting next week! As our allotment plot is at the top of a gentle incline, it proved a great workout for all involved too!

Finally we turned our attention back to the school site. Alison, our school secretary, had kindly donated a poly tunnel to the school a few months ago. Our challenge today was to work out how the frame fitted back together! A great logic activity to get our brains working (learning never stops….see how useful problem solving skills are and why they should be developed?!) By the end of the morning we had managed to complete stage one of the poly tunnel construction and we knew exactly where each piece of metal should go!

The Green Team!

By the end of the morning we had increased our growing potential by at least 200%! None of this would have been possible without the support of the team from Adnams or the generous donations of compost and tools from Wyevale nurseries and Fiskars  tools or the generous grant donation from the Felix Cobbold trust. We have also been supported along the way by Kelling Heath and 'Buy a parcel'  (wood donations) as well as by Dani Church who very kindly provided us with the wood needed for our raised beds on the school allotment plot.

Next week we begin the process of filling our new 'growing spaces' with healthy fruit and vegetables!!