First crops planted

We planted our first crops on the 18/9/2014, the week before the holidays, a little early for some spring planting, but most plants are thriving

 

In the Junior School Garden (Prep & 1) we planted Savoy cabbages, mini cabbages and 3 varieties of tomatoes, Cherry, Roma and Gross Lisse

In the Middle School Garden (Year 2) we planted Carrots and Dragons tongue beans. The beans haven't been coping to well with the weather, however I hope some will survive. The carrots transplanted really well.

The Senior School Garden was planted with beetroot. One was a heritage variety but I think they all got mixed up. They are growing well and might need some further dividing once they are a little more established.

Visit from Bunnings

Today we were very lucky to had David and Cheryl come out to the school, from Bunnings.

First job to do was prune the fruit trees. Cheryl gave the grade 3,4,5,&6 students a talk about what we were going to do, and then we headed to the garden. Of course it was raining, but that didn't dampen the students enthusiasm. Since this was a major job, we couldn't get it all done in one afternoon, so I finished off the pruning on Thursday, check out the trees now.

 

From This

 To this

 1/2 way on this one

JOB DONE

The Prep 1 &2 class help Cheryl and David plant anew hedge along the tennis court at the front of the school. We also had a whole lot of bulbs in the shed, so the student planted them all in the garden bed.

Garden Update

 A beautiful gift from Cara, flowers in a gum nut

Concrete edging around the fruit trees, thanks to all the students who moved the huge amount of mulch, it looks amazing

Our resident chickens and rooster

Garden beds are about 3/4 full, just need some well fertilised soil to top them up

The fruit trees in desperate need of a prune. Bunnings are coming to do a demonstration with the students on the 1st September

Watering System 2

Watering System is nearly completed.

 The green thing on the top of the pipe is a tap.

My garden is waiting for the beds to be built now. Although I have a little more of the water system to finish off, the garden beds can be installed. Unfortunately I have been sick and the weather has been stormy but we are still progressing.

Doug Don and the Wheelbarrow Puzzle

The Wheel Barrow Puzzle begins

The school was donated some wheel barrows, as grateful as we are, they were incomplete and all in a big muddle. Luckily the wonderful and clever Doug was able to assemble 2 wheel barrows. However I had to purchase new wheels as they were missing.

Water System 1

I have started laying the ground work for installing the watering system, under our garden beds. I will map out what I have done and once the garden is finished, create a map with all the details, but here are some pics to illustrate.

 Looking across, from the chicken coop towards the kitchen

 Looking the other way, from the kitchen towards chicken coop

 Looking down from the top, art room on the right

the pipes are just straightening out, as they are being recycled and have been stored rolled up in the shed

Bunnings on Board

I am very happy to announce that Bunnings have accepted my request for a donation of goods for the shed refurbishment.I am heading there next week to collect the goods and purchase the rest.
I also asked for someone to come and give some advice/demonstration of fruit tree pruning, I am yet to confirm the date for this, but Bunnings will facilitate this too. I am one happy Project Manager.

Can't wait for the new garden

The grades 3, 4, 5 and 6 planted some dwarf bean seeds in the remaining old garden bed as part of their biological studies. The were very enthusiastic and are checking their seedlings daily. Luckily we have had some rain, but they are very attentive in making sure they were watered when it it doesn't rain. We will have a bumper crop of peas in a few weeks. I thought dwarf peas would be more manageable at this point, rather than having to build something too tall for beans or peas to grow up, which we will be able to do in the new garden beds.

I added 10 bags of potting mix and some Dynamic Lifter to the soil in the week prior to the seed planting. We used plastic knives and a permanent texta to label the plots.

Progress in the shed

Here are some photo's of our progress so far.

 This is the start of my rubbish collection in one end of the shed

The other end of the shed

Started emptying the shed and filling the skip

 

 Now we are getting somewhere, temporarily moved some things into the sports shed and continued with the rubbish, 2 trailer loads

 Where we are at now, just waiting for some lucky person to win the wood raffle, and then the shed will be ready for a good pressure clean and then fitout.

Progress in the Garden

I was very happy today when I came into school and the plumber had been and done the work in the garden. We have a level area and tap,we can now move on to the next stage.
We are going to plan the exact layout of the new garden beds, spray all the weeds and grass, lay the watering system for all the garden and then get the garden beds built.
After a short delay, the project is now moving forward again. I can't wait.

 

I have also been busy cleaning out the shed. Thank you to those who have helped in removing things that didn't belong. I can't wait to get a skip and start throwing stuff out. 

Demolition has begun

I got into the garden last week and began demolishing the old garden.  

Here are some before shots

 Here are some after shots

We are now waiting to get the ground leveled then move a few of the extra heavy rocks and we can lay the new watering system, cover the ground with new gravel and start building the new gardens.

Cooking lunches with the students began last week, with great success. Check out the Kids in the Kitchen Page