Thursday 23 July 2020

Flower pressing

I've been back in school, working with children of key workers at Heald Place doing a variety of gardening and outdoor learning.

One thing that went well was to dry and press flowers and then to use them to make a card to take home. We picked the flowers and put them between a folded piece of kitchen roll. Then we left them under a heavy book for a week in the classroom.

When we got them out they had dried really well. The flatter, thinner flowers worked best. We then used PVA to glue them to a card and children wrote messages to someone at home.


Tuesday 14 April 2020

The most popular plant in the garden

Sorrel. 

It is by far the most popular plant I've helped people to grow. All children love it. OK I'm exaggerating, but only slightly. If you've never tasted sorrel it has a sharp, citrus tang to the leaves and children love eating it straight off the plant. 

It's also really tough, grows back every year and you can easily take cuttings from it by slicing off a part of the root using a sharp spade. This is best done in early spring. Simply replant the part you cut off and in a few weeks you'll have new leaves growing.