Spring has sprung!

We had a beautiful Spring day in An Grianán today, with lots happening in the garden with Annette from Heritage in Schools.

Crocuses, Snowdrops and Daffodils are in bloom; catkins and flowers have appeared on the Willow, Hazel and Alder. Rhubarb, Iris and other perennials are beginning to grow back too. We harvested seeds for the library from some biennials, Mullein and Teasel and cleared some of last year's dead growth from the sensory beds.

In the vegetable boxes the Junior Infants Broadbeans and the Second Class garlic sown in Autumn are doing well. Fifth Class are still waiting to harvest last year's Purple Sprouting Broccoli and the added some Carrot seeds to their box. Senior Infants and Fourth Class sowed Radishes and Sixth Class planted Onion sets. The First Class bed is still covered, warming the soil for potato planting soon. Third Class cleared out their bed and will add some Beetroot and Runner Beans in the next few weeks. 

We also did lots of observing signs of Spring and used the Merlin app to identify some of the birds who were singing loudly in the sun.

Trees on the Land planting

We had a very productive day at An Grianán today. We planted over 250 trees with the help of Brian Gaynor from Trees on the Land (they provided the free trees) and some parent volunteers. 5th and 6th did the majority of the planting and then some reps from those classes showed the other classes what we did and also demonstrated how to plant a tree! 

We planted a native hedgegrow the whole way along the inside of the front school wall. We then planted an 8 tree orchard near the prefab. Any remained trees were planted up and around the school garden, filling gaps etc.

Lots of colour in November

 

Harvesting and sowing

Taking away some of the old Rainbow Chard leaves to make space.

Junior Infants sowing Broad Beans.

We had a very busy day in the vegetable garden with Annette Corkery today. Everyone learned more about our rotation plan, harvested lots and got the beds ready for winter. There's not much that can be sown at this time of year, but some seeds like some weeks of cold weather before they sprout.

Junior Infants removed some Chard and weeds and sowed Broad Beans. Senior Infants cleared their bed and sowed Pak Choi. First Class will be planting potatoes in Spring, so they pulled out all the weeds and covered the bed in a thick layer of leaves.

Getting the bed ready.

Sowing Pak Choi.

Everyone got to taste lots of leaves, flowers and some beans. The Oca leaves were lemony, but the Nasturtiums are spicy and the Pineapple mint was furry. Second Class harvested lots of Oca and Ulucko that they planted last May. They then sowed garlic.

Third Class left their bed alone as it still has Phacelia and Edible flowers growing. They planted Crocus bulbs in the Shady Spiral.

Fourth Class found lots of Runner Beans and Beetroot in their bed and Fifth Class got to harvest some Beetroot too, but left the Purple Sprouting Broccoli growing until Spring. The Sixth Class bed is overflowing with Nasturtiums, so we left it to die off once the frost comes and will plant onions in the New Year. They also planted Crocus bulbs. Annette’s visit was fully funded by the Heritage Council as part of the Heritage in Schools scheme.