Tuesday 9^th May 2017

Poly tunnel building and planting in our new, raised beds!

 Another VERY busy day in the 'food for thought' garden!

Today’s challenge was to complete our poly tunnel (using logic as we didn’t have instructions!) bark chip the floor and build raised beds out of decking so we could set our tomatoes and cucumbers!

We used DT and mathematical skills to measure, cut and join the wood for our beds. We also needed to know lots about angles as making our beds ‘square’ (or rectangular!) was a challenge which we had to overcome. We eventually did by using existing corners that we knew were ready made right angles which we then used as a guide.

Making the floor of the poly tunnel was a challenge too. We needed a way to stop the grass and the weeds from growing. We decided to but a black, weed membrane down on the floor. From our science experiments earlier in the year we knew that this would stop the grass and weeds from getting any light which would eventually kill them off.

Finally we had to learn how to set our tomatoes. We knew we needed compost to provide food for our plants. We also learned through research that it is better to set tomatoes deep into the compost as they will sprout new roots from the stem that will make them even stronger and healthier, giving us a much better yield!

Sky was looking at the root systems of our plants. You could tell which plants were healthy!

We also set a curiosity….CUCAMELONS! We aren’t a ‘green eggs and ham’ kind of school! We like to try new things so it will be interesting to see what these little plants turn out like…and even more interesting to see what they taste like! See if you can find a picture of what they look like!!

Planting our seedlings in neat little rows!

Here we are…what a blooming success! We have a poly tunnel, an allotment with six beds, four large beds at the side of the school with pots of potatoes to boot! At the back of the school we have a further four beds. All this in little over 12 months! We have become real problem solvers, developed numerous academic skills (in context!), learned LOTS about teamwork and perseverance and achieved something magnificent that we can actually use, eat, sell and be proud of! Well done everyone!!

Angus is watering our 'Ailsa Craig' tomatoes.

How much water will our seedlings need?



The new, raised beds at the side of the school are now filled!!

The next stage is looking after our little plants! We’ll be learning lots about mini beasts and caring for plants as we try and make our biggest yield EVER!



The raised beds at the back of the school are filling up fast!

 

We have some tiny gooseberries already! The rhubarb needs water in the sunshine!

 

 

 

 

                    

A special Thanks to all of our team who worked so hard on Saturday...Mrs Bowles, Mr Rollings, Sarah, Mark, Sue, Alex, Alex, Siobhan, Joe, Lisa and Digby.

Tuesday 25th April 2017





What a busy day we have had today! With some help on Saturday we managed to construct some of the poly tunnel. Today, with the help of class 4 we completed the task!! Lots of really good problem solving for us to ponder. It was a little bit like a giant jigsaw puzzle...but with a little  perseverance we managed to complete the task.

Finally the frame was complete and we could add the outer skin. Again...lots of teamwork and brawn....and finally we had a completed poly tunnel! The next step is to build a planting table and put some long, raised beds in the poly tunnel to plant our tomatoes and cucumbers!

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!!

Tuesday 14th March 2017

All hands to the allotment!

 

Well what a big day today! All our wood had arrived and we had the tools to start constructing our raised beds!

Organisation was a key to the day. The children organised themselves into teams. We had to visualise the 3D shapes in order to get the lengths, widths and pegs in the right position.

There was a good deal of maths on offer here…measurements, angles, parallel lines, perpendicular pieces of wood and multiplication to sort out how many screws and wood lengths we would need to complete each bed.

There was also plenty of science and DT. At one point we realised that our screws would not bite all the way into the wood. The material was too hard so our solution? We had to drill deeper. We also looked at friction and how warm the drill piece was after drilling the wood.

The class were brilliant at finding right angles and with a little perseverance and kind help for other allotment owners, we were able to fix four out of our six beds into place! Next week we should be able to complete the beds, lay the mulch and maybe even fill them with compost ready for the planting season to begin!

Meanwhile…..the beetroot, courgette and tomato seedlings begin to pop their heads above the soil……

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday 28th February 2017

A surprise Fruit Garden!

 

Today felt a little bit like Christmas when a giant, mystery brown box arrived on our doorstep!

For the past year we have been working to gain our RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) award. Our eventual aim is to make level 5 status which is only awarded to schools who set up their own school gardens, use the produce and continually develop them by making sure horticulture and home grown food are on the school curriculum.

As a part of completing our level 4 award we were given a voucher to spend at ‘Rocket gardens’. Basically they are a company who grow seedlings to supply to gardens, ready to be set. Our mystery box contained a whole range of fruits from strawberries to red currants, with everything in between!!

Today we managed to set them all in a new ‘fruit garden’ and rhubarb patch that we created!

What do you think to the rhubarb? The larger plants were kindly donated by Mrs Bowles and her father. By researching we discovered that we could split the plants in half to gain a bigger crop!

Class 4 were great at identifying the rest of the fruit plants. It wasn’t easy as the leaves hadn’t grown back after the autumn and some of the labels had fallen off! But after careful reasoning, all were identified. Our next learning was a little more scientific as we had to read the planting guide to work out where it would be best to plant each bush in our beds. A complex task as by watching the beds throughout the day we learned that some parts of the beds have sun in the morning, some in the afternoon and some not at all! A great starting point to discuss the Earth, sun and changing seasons!

So much learning in a realistic context!

Tuesday 21^st February 2017

Our very own orchard!

 

Today saw the arrival of several fruit trees!

We were lucky enough to be able to apply for free apple, pear, plum and cherry trees for our school grounds. Over the years, many orchards have been lost to developments so Suffolk Wildlife Trust have made many ‘old English’ varieties available to grow in school grounds.

Firstly we needed to work out which trees were which! The cherry trees had very different bark to the apple and pear trees so were easy to spot. We noticed different buds on the plum tree. The branches were thinner too. The apple and pear trees were harder to tell apart, but using magnifiers we could tell that the buds were different!

Finally we needed to find a sunny but sheltered spot to grow our fruit trees. We settled for a space near to the story telling chair.

Before we could plant our trees we needed to take a good look around our plot. Last year we discovered that tree roots can grow almost as long as the tree they are attached to is tall! We also learned through experimenting in science that plants grown closely together grow poorly as there is too much competition for nutrients, light and water. So we went to work measuring and researching the height of the surrounding trees to discover the best place to put each of our own plants.

What do you think? One day it will be a superb, quiet place to grow. Did you know that Sir Isaac Newton made one of his greatest discoveries under an apple tree?!

 

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.