Longsight bay leaves

St John's has a large Bay tree that needs trimming (we need to wait until spring to really cut it back) so the school Gardening Club cut some branches and then used scrap paper to make packets that they designed. The smell of the bay leaves was wonderful and the pupils came up with some lovely designs.

We're going to give the packets away to parents and community members at a school Open Day on Thursday. Maybe we'll find some people interested in getting involved in the school garden and greenhouse?

Planting on playgrounds

Armitage Primary want to green the school and use plants to enhance its appearance. In particular they asked me to think about ways to cover some metal fences and a pergola in the EYFS outdoor area.

So we asked Timber Recycling in Manchester (TRIM) to make us some wooden planters. Children painted the inside with linseed oil and we've filled them with a mix of soil from Kennedy's in Salford and compost from Fairfield Composting who use the waste fruit and veg from Manchester's main wholesale market. Hulme Community Garden Centre gave really helpful advice about planting options, what to fill them with and how to preserve the wood. I was interested that both TRIM and HCGC advised on just preserving the inside.

The first plants are now in, some winter bedding with a few onions and garlic mixed in. Climbers will go in in November, probably a mix of winter jasmine, evergreen clematis and others that will provide cover over the winter.

Making an insect hotel

I don't like calling them "bug hotels", they say "bug" in the US and I think we have enough US culture here already. Anyway, we've started to make one at Armitage. The nearby construction site were kind enough to donate some pallets, bricks and pipes. In fact I nipped over to ask and half an hour later a mini digger came rumbling round the corner loaded with materials we could use.

The pallets needed a bit of sanding and I removed some nails before pupils got to work filling it with 5 Star insect facilities.  A great job for younger children this. Reception and Year 1 children scoured the school grounds for twigs and branches and then put these in the pipes or just scattered them in the pallets. We simply put one pallet on the ground, filled it up and then put the second one on and so on.

The top will be a green roof planted with drought resistant herbs such as rosemary, sage and thyme giving us another precious growing area.  Now I just need to go back to the building site and see if they've got any old scaffolding planks.

It will be interested to see what moves in.

New school year

I'll be working in two Manchester primary schools this term to help them get more into gardening (Armitage CE Primary School and St John's CE Primary School). At Armitage we'll be finishing off our wildlife stack by making a green roof, collecting leaves for leaf mould and generally getting things ready for the spring.

St John's have a greenhouse attached to the school building so we'll be deciding what to grow over the winter. Oranges from Longsight, there's a thought. And how are the parsnips in the raised beds doing?