Pallets and compost

We like to 'reduce, reuse and recycle' as much as possible in An Grianán school garden. Today some classes got to learn more about tool safety and try out a handsaw, as we turned donated pallets into raised beds and shelves for the greenhouse. We are delighted with this donation. We'll also make a potting table and other useful garden furniture with the pallets.

There was great excitement when Junior Infants got to watch the big truck deliver more recycled mushroom compost. All classes learned a bit more about the chemical reactions going on as the carbon and nitrogen elements in the heap continue to decompose. We also got a look at the mycelium left from the mushrooms,  that helps plants communicate. The compost will add loads of nutrients to our new beds inside the greenhouse and around the rest of the garden. We'll let it settle for awhile before planting young plants into it directly.

Senior Infants found some Beech nuts under the giant Beech tree today, so we have planted them in pots to see if we an grow some new trees. It can take up to 40 years for the tree to produce nuts, hopefully we won't have to wait so long for the seedlings to sprout! 

Beech nuts sown in pots. 

The Nature Heroes committee have been busy keeping the new seeds and the rest of the garden watered, as we've had some lovely dry, sunny weather for the last while. 

We all checked on the tadpoles, who are getting big already. They are quiet and hard to spot in the morning, but come up and move around more later in the day. We also saw some pond skaters and a diving beetle. We also planted a Marsh Marigold at the edge of the pond today, and some Primroses in the Shady Spiral. 

Another busy day

There was lots of action in the garden again on Thursday. We used another bag of mulch to finish the greenhouse floor and start mulching around our hawthorn hedges. 

Lots of hands made easy work of weeding between the bushes first. We also pruned some of the hawthorn and stuck the cuttings into any gaps. Hawthorn is difficult to grow from cuttings, but some of them may root. 

We also took cuttings from our blackcurrant bushes which are much more likely to grow into new plants. We learned to tell the blackcurrant bush from other currants from its smell. These cuttings are now in pots in the greenhouse.

We sowed lots of the seeds collected from the garden over the autumn and winter. These included Nasturtiums, Great Mullein, Tree Mallow and the yellow daisy from near the pond. 

The tadpoles have hatched and are still eating some of the jelly from the frogspawn. They are tiny and very cute. 

First and Second Class have been learning about bees and pollination, so we had fun coming up with bee dances, which is how they communicate with each other, where the best flowers and nesting sites are. 

The greenhouse has arrived

Annette from Heritage in Schools was back today for another busy, sunny day in the garden. The new Heptagon House greenhouse has arrived, so we covered the floor with lots of cardboard to keep the grass down. This will eventually rot away and become compost. We have added bark mulch on top to create a path and potting area and will make beds for planting into soon.

Wildflowers are starting to appear in our new orchard/meadow out the front of the school. We added some Comfrey here to help keep the Apple trees happy. 

We also planted some turnips, lettuce, and potatoes and took away lots of last year's dead stems from the perennial plants. The frogspawn in the pond was examined closely, some tadpoles might appear very soon. We spotted pond skaters and diving beetles too.