We have been so busy over the last month. Today we were able to harvest our Mangetout. The little seedlings tried them once Tracie had washed them.
Three seedlings wanted to try them and no matter how much we encouraged Sophie she wasnt up for tasting them.
Alfie and Georgia loved the Mangetout and ate loads but Emma and Fearne were not so keen. We loved the faces Fearne made, at least they tried them!
Mangetout
Having a Taste
Alfie
Georgia
Fearne
Thumbs up
Below are our other tasty fruits and vegetables we have growing in the garden.
Cucumber
Tomatoes
Ginger
Leaves
Strawberries
Thats not a vegetable. It’s a massive Lily!
This is a collection of photos of the plants the Rangers and Wanderers wanted me to post.
Allium
Our New Strawberry, we sowed in February
Hosta
Amazing Detail
Flanders Poppy
Fizzy’s Hiding Place
Hot Poker
Peony
Plum
We also had a few whoopsies! We had some visitors come and make holes in our cabbages! Georgia thought it was a hedgehog, Fearne thought it was a snail and Sophie said “I don’t know Tracie!” When I told them all it was a slug they all said yucky!
Slug
Cabbage
Our other problem was the giant Poppies, they have over taken our vegetable patch!
Gemma’s vegetable beds are amazing and full of lush green produce. When the days are sunny Gemma gets Chloe to help water them.
Vegetable Beds
All Growing Lush
Gemma loves Pac Choi and hers have grown really well. Once they start to flower, which is called bolting, the seeds grow for Gemma to collect for sowing next year!
Gemma’s radishes are amazing, they are as big as a large marbles.
Unfortunately my radishes have not turned out so well! Mine are as big as a grape, but not so juicy.
What an amazing week all the children have had for half term! We have been so busy going wild the week went way too quickly and the Wonderers and Rangers are now back in school!
Chloe and Tracie on a Bike Adventure
Tracie took Chloe on a wild bike ride all around Croxteth Park. We saw some amazing cows, ducks, horses and squirrels. We went up and down bridges, over a cattle bridge, through the trees and along the very bumpy winding paths. By the time we got back to the car we had cycled 5 miles! Lets hope Chloe slept well for her mum and dad that night!?
Poppy and the Baby Bird
One morning while Tracie was putting the washing on the line one of the cats had this baby bird in its mouth. Poppy got upset but luckily we were able to take the bird gently from the cat. We very carefully checked over the bird and decided to put it on the bird feeding table so it’s mummy would find him.
Chloe Wanted to see Him
Ruffled Feathers
Singing For His Mummy
The Seedlings and Martha from the Rangers went on another Liverpool Kindness Rock hunt. Tracie also asked them to look out for mini beasts and wildlife.
Swift
When we were all hunting in the rose garden Georgia called out to say she found a bird. Tracie identified it as a Swift as it had a short forked tail, appears black in flight and crescent (like the moon) shaped wings.
On Tuesday, in the park, we saw the gardeners all working hard to make the flower beds pretty. Tracie noticed they were throwing the empty flower trays to one side. We went over to do some investigating. Wonder what they would do with them?
Martha decided to ask the Gardeners if they reuse them? The gardeners said no! Well that’s not good! Tracie asked if we could take them? We can use some for potting on our growing seedlings and recycle the ones we don’t use. The gardeners were happy for us to take them off their hands.
Stanley Park Gardeners
Georgia and Matha Collecting the Trays
The Girls Looking For Items to Recycle
Jack had a wild time playing in the long grass, he giggles away rolling about watching everyone chat and take pictures.
We have had such a fun week, here’s a little gallery of different wild things we have done.
Hugged a Tree
Found a Sycamore Seed
Is This a Liverpool Wellness Rock Children?
Martha Found the First Rock
We Found Mushrooms
Going Through the Bushes
Hiding
Finding Flowers that Tracie has in her Garden
Watching a Yoga Class
Squirrels Running
Looking Through the Tree Trunk
Another Rock Martha!
Tracie Finally Found One!
Alfie had Fun
Emma Got Excited!
Martha Found Clover
Georgia Found One
All Our Treasures
Saved an Egg? Will it Hatch?
Feeding the Birds!
We were not impressed with the amount off rubbish we found in the park! This could harm the wildlife and is not very pleasant to see! This is what we found!
Lots of Empty Bottles
A Trainer!
Coffee and Juice Cartons
No 1 but 3 Different Socks!
A Pair of Pants! Yucky
A Button in a Bag
An Empty Bubble Pot
The children asked if we could pick it up and put it all in the bin. Martha said she was ‘quite upset with what we all found!’
What a first week of our 30 Days Going Wild, we have had a fun-packed time! Wow it’s exhausting writing the blog we’ve done so much! I wonder what exciting Wild days we will have next week?
What a wet May we have all had! Its been so hard gardening because every time we go to do some, the weather changes!!
The garden has loved the wet weather and all the plants and grass are all growing lovely.
Early in the year, we sowed tomatoes in various ways to see which would grow better.
Jacy’s Tomato Sowed Early in the Year
Jacy sowed his tomato seed in a Bisto pot, he thought it would protect the roots when he potted it on. Eventually the Bisto pot will disintegrate when the plant is placed in the grow bag giving the roots extra space to grow.
What a fantastic idea Jacy had. His tomato plant is the strongest, tallest and has a tomato already growing on it! We are so impressed that we are collecting Bisto pots now!
The pictures below are of Tracie holding Jacy’s tomato plant up so you can see the amazingly strong roots!
The middle picture is a tomato plant we grew in the green house in a plastic pot. As you can see there are less roots and they are wonky (we do love wonky veg so thats ok!) they are much smaller, thin and scraggly. The bottom pictures (above) are of our other seedlings which we are growing in toilet rolls and they seem nice and strong! We will start hardening them off soon, ready to be planted among our flowers.
Above is our pot we sowed the Melon seeds in. We have no idea how but we have a tomato plant and weeds! No sign of a melon!
We have tried to grow cucumbers as we had a bumper crop last year. Unfortunately they didn’t grow even though we sowed 6!
We decided to go to the garden centre and buy one already established. Within 2 days they had slug damage! So back to the garden centre we went. This time we have put a water marker on it, covered the pot rim with copper (to keep slugs away) and placed it on gravel. We will see how they go in our next garden post.
At the beginning of May, Gemma sent us some pictures of her garden vegetable raised beds that she had made. They have come on so well and are all starting to grow nice and strong.
Its mid-May now and only two weeks since the above pictures and the raised beds have grown so much! Gemma and the children are doing so well, they must all have green fingers!!
Chloe has been helping Gemma after school with watering and trying to keep Cooper their dog from jumping on them! All our pets want to join in with gardening!
This week, all the children have loved the soft play area. Even the Wanderers and Rangers have used them.
Emma and the Seedlings used the soft play area to practice counting and looked around for different shapes.
Molly buried Jack underneath the blocks to make a grave!
Martie made Tracie’s heart jump when trying to go down the steps head first!
Chloe, Leo and Molly made a big aeroplane. Leo was the pilot and took the girls on holiday. Tracie asked if he could fly her to Madeira so she could enjoy the hot weather, Chloe said she wants to go with her so she could go swimming.
Martha used the blocks to make a barricade as she didn’t want to go home! We love the blocks as we can make up so many different activities and role play games.
This Easter holidays have flown by so fast. The Seedlings, Wanderers and Rangers have all been so busy in the garden and their efforts are paying off with an abundance of seedlings growing strong.
On the first shelf in our greenhouse we have Marigolds growing, we will be planting them between the tomatoes, Chillies and Cucumbers to help fight away the aphids, this is called companion planting. We do this instead of using pesticides which is better for the environment. The Wanderers are growing Pak Choi, radish, cauliflower and sweetpeas.
On the second shelf we have used toilet rolls as pots, filled them with peat-free compost and sown peas, swede, beetroot and spring onions.
The Little Seedlings helped Tracie to sow the Phlox seeds, Alfie tried so hard to pick a seed up from Tracie’s hand using his pincer grip, but the seeds were just too small. Tracie gave Alfie the packet to sprinkle over the toilet roll pots. I’m sure they will set seed soon and we will thin them out individually if over crowded.
The middle shelf has tomatoes and pansies growing well. We made sure they all have plenty of water and tomato feed to help produce strong stems.
The top shelf is bursting with Chillies, sweet peppers, chives and lavender. Jacy from the Rangers has the strongest tomato plant growing, the Bisto pot is still going strong!!
Last week, Georgia helped to sow the onion sets. This week she noticed they had grown, she asked if she could sow some more. Tracie asked Georgia to help prepare the soil for the seeds, Georgia got stuck in by raking the soil.
Jack came over and asked if he could help, Tracie gave Jack baby sweetcorn and carrots to sow. He then helped to cover the raised bed with mesh, this is because the birds keep attacking the onion sets and seeds.
Today we have all been on a trip to Croxteth Park Hall and joined in the ‘Liverpool Kindness Rocks’ challenge. We had to look high and low for painted rocks hidden around our parks.
Some stones have been placed with paint for you to take home and decorate yourself. Once decorated you then hide them in a different park. I wonder who will find the most, seedlings, rangers or wanderers?
Emma
Thank you George and Oliver
Everyone said Emma would win! We were all right, she found not one but two! A lovely shiny leaf and a ‘Thank You NHS’, they were both in a tree stump.
Thank You Lisa
Jacy found the next one, he remembered he had seen something a week ago when he was in the park with his mum. He didn’t go and investigate it then, but he went over to the place he thought he had seen it and it was was still there! One to the Rangers!
Sparkling Leaf by JJO
Georgia from the Seedlings found this beautiful ladybird rock near the playground, one to the Seedlings!
Georgia Left One on a Log
Beautiful Ladybird
Georgia loved the shine on the ladybird and said it was really smooth and pretty.
We Left These Stones For Someone to FindWhere’s This One We Hid? Good Luck Finding it! Rocks We Found at Walton Hall and Hid in Croxteth Park
Exercise in the Park
Pasta Salad
Georgia Loved the Cake
Emma Filling her Face
Jack and Jacy
Tracie Camara Shy
Mason Looked High
Camp Making
Climbing Trees
Jacy was a Caveman
Jacy and Jack
It was soon time for lunch and we all sat next to the park and the older children went on the exercise equipment and worked up a hunger so came back and had lunch.
The Rangers loved climbing the trees and getting stuck, luckily they were able to help each other to get over and off them. They worked well together and made treehouses.
We all thought Jacy’s was the biggest and brightest of all.
Cooling Marshmallows
Last but not least we went home and ended our day by the campfire roasting marshmallows nom nom.
The Little Seedlings said a farewell to Niamh back in December 2020 as she was moving back home to Ireland with her mummy and daddy.
Niamh Wearing The Apron She Made With Us
Since then, we have been sending pictures and messages to each other. Niamh sent us this picture of her, wearing the apron she made in the last week with us.
Hi Niamh
The Little Seedlings sent this picture back, asking her how she was and if she had settled in her new home.
Niamh Where’s Ours?
Niamh said she misses us all but she loves having mummy and daddy with her all the time.
Today we had a special message from Niamh, she was reading us her favourite book!
Poppy was very happy as it was called ‘Poppy and Sam’s Bedtime’ we are amazed how grown up Niamh has got! Talk soon, love the Little Seedlings.
The Little Seedings made some very nice Red Nose Day biscuits. Tracie mixed the water into the icing sugar and it exploded everywhere, we all thought this was very funny!
Listening to Instructions
Mixing the Icing
Adding Red Sweets
All Done
Somebody couldn’t wait to ice and add sweets to their biscuits! The face said it all!
Nom Nom
Biscuit or Me?
Tracie and Emma didnt want to miss out! Emma made a double dip stack and Tracie wanted hers plain and simple. Both were delicious.
Emma Made a Double Dip
Tracie liked Plain and Simple
Alfie Loved His
Watch Tracie Make a Mess
Yummy
We decorated some biscuits for the Wanderers and Rangers for when they come home from school. Let’s hope they aren’t eaten before the come!!
Jacy
Leo
Mason
Thumbs up for the Biscuit
Leo loved the Decorations
Thumbs Up for Taste
When the wildlife Rangers and Wanderers came home they wore their noses and ate the biscuits all up and gave a big thumbs up!
Tracie's Treasures 