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.

Seed Library

We plan to set up a Community Seed Library and started collecting seeds from the flowers in our garden before the Halloween break.

Dinosaur Garden

We had a busy day in the garden today. Junior Infants explored; Senior Infants harvested their broad beans and sowed poppy seeds. They also learned about willow and ferns and planned the Dinosaur Garden. First, Second and Third classes did some willow weaving and added lots of creative touches to the Dinosaur Garden. Our native ferns will grow here in the shade, which they like. 

Willow Weaving

Fourth, Fifth and Sixth classes harvested willow from the dome and teepees and learned some willow weaving techniques. We made fairy wings, fish and flower crowns. The sun was shining and the garden is full of flowers.

Hedgerow Week

 

Hedgerow Week

We all went on a walk and saw leaves and a gate made by a blacksmith and natural blackberry bushes. We saw lots of flowers like vetch, we ate some blackberries.

We also did some exercises before we went on the walk. We went to the berries. 

4th Class

 

We saw some meadowsweet which can be made into medicine and also has salicylic acid. 

We saw lots of blackberries as well. 

We saw lots of different kinds of nature in Hedgerow Week. We all love it. 

We saw a blackberry, dandelion and buttercup.

We have seen nettles, flowers, berries and we saw a very long worm called King Jeremy. 

There were lots of interesting things to see and hear about.

5th class