A beautiful spring afternoon enabled our Garden Club to meet in the garden itself for a busy, proactive afternoon. We planted out sweetcorn, pumpkins, peas, squashes and cucumbers, all grown by CDS children from seed. Mr Allen, our resident potato king, gathered a group of enthusiastic helpers to plant out potato seedlings in canvas bags whilst Mrs. Heppelwhite worked her wigwam magic for the 2nd year running! We even had a wonderful , helpful Grandma join in the fun. |
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It is really interesting to see how the seasons differ when you are 3000 miles away! We have been having some lovely weather – sunshine and dry – but cold at night and, without any rain (yes, even in a wet part of the UK), our Spring is a bit slow coming. However, there is lots of lovely blossom on the trees and in the hedgerows. In my vegetable garden, some things can go through the winter because we don’t have such cold nights – no snow this year and the coldest was about 20*F. Here are my Broad Beans which I planted last Autumn in my cold frame. The flowers are just turning into beans. Here are some I planted a few weeks ago. Peas are starting to grow well. And beetroot just starting to come – these are yellow beetroot! The fruit bushes are just about to flower and form currants. So it’s lovely to see your garden and keep putting pictures on your blog so I can see how well you are doing and compare your vegetables with mine!!
They say it is going to rain tomorrow….. As I drove up to school to set up for our first after school "Garden Club" enrichment , in true British style, the heavens opened. Undeterred, my fabulous helpers & I gathered in the multipurpose room to 'pot on' our seedlings - some of which were outgrowing their seed starter trays. We made a thorough mess (!), talked about the word 'transplanting' and saw how many of the seedlings roots were already pushing through the biodegradable seed pots. We cut up the seed starting pots and planted them directly into larger pots to create sturdier plants. We will then plant these out in the garden itself over the next week or so. Most importantly we had a lot of fun!
On my regular visits in and out of school over the last week or so, many excited children have been rushing up to me informing me of their seedlings progress. Mrs. Montgomery's 3rd Graders deserve a special mention as they waited very patiently for their chilli peppers to emerge - especially as the 4th Grade beans next to them on their sunny windowsill, went positively crazy!
What an exciting gardening week we have just had at Chatham Day School! Every class, from preschool through 4th Grade helped me plant seedlings - we discussed where seeds come from, what they need to grow and how to care and nurture them at this tender stage. As I write, we have cucumber, sunflower, pea and bean seedlings already sprouting on various sunny windowsills in elementary classrooms. We are waiting patiently on peppers, chillies, pumpkin, yellow zucchini, acorn squash and sweetcorn to germinate.
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AuthorPersonal Musing of Eleanor Wroath - Chatham Day School parent and gardening enthusiast. Archives
June 2015
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