Today while Gemma was digging her borders she watched this cute bumble bee come out of the ground.
Gemma stopped what she was doing, so she didn’t disturb her. Gemma looked up different types of Bees and found out it was a Queen Bee.
Gemma is hoping she will build a beehive somewhere in the garden so she can watch what happens. But she will keep away from her as she doesn’t want to get stung!
It was wet and windy today so we decided to stay indoors to sow our seeds. We used items out of our Recycling bin to fill up with soil and sow the seeds.
Martha found this egg box and said she thought it would be good to sow individual seeds. Ivor said we might be able to see the roots grow too! The children loved the marks the egg box made in the soil.
Two years ago we decided to grow an avocado stone. The Little Seedlings tried the Avocado fruit. Only one out of five Seedlings liked it!
We had another go last year. This time we placed the stone into water using a special ‘Avoseedo’ tool. We waited for it to grow and after about nine weeks the stone started splitting.
About six weeks later, a small sprout appeared at the tip and roots began to form at the bottom. Two months went by… then the roots and shoots began to get stronger. In June, we planted the small tree into a pot with soil.
We were given another stone by our neighbour and decided to try growing that too. We now have two thriving trees.
While we were all out it the garden, the Little Seedlings kept trying to pick the pretty flowers. We made it into an activity by making some amazing flower prints on fabric and paper. First we got some cotton napkins, placed the flowers on one side and folded the napkin in half to cover the flowers. We all had fun bashing the napkin with a rolling pin.
After a few minutes, we opened up the napkin and carefully peeled off the squidgy flowers. The patterns made by the flowers were very pretty and printed on both sides of the napkin like a butterfly.
The children enjoyed this activity and extended it by mixing paints to make different colours, shades, prints.
Tracie has a lot of nooks and crannies where she grows in her garden and she has decided to use the back end of the garden (where she gets the most sun!) for her growing challenge.
This is Phyllis’ garden in January 2021. It was very cold that week and we have had some snow.
Phyllis’ little Kitten is Hebe and we’re sure you’ll see a lot of him during the challenge.
This year the theme in our ever-changing garden will be a rainbow explosion of colours to represent our hard-working Key Workers. So far we have looked through gardening magazines to find various plants we could use. All the children have chosen their favourite colours and plants, which we will incorporate within the two gardens.
Our BIG project will be to extend our pond area for all our wildlife. Our main pond is in a raised bed but the wildlife need more space so we’re looking to extend it across the bed. The children have asked for a water feature so this might make an appearance.
Over the last couple of years we have had so much success with our raised beds, however we need to make these changes. We are always finding new and exciting ways to garden. We’ll also be putting up the new greenhouse and VegTrugs.
We will keep you posted on the projects, so keep returning to our website to find out how its all gone throughout the seasons.
In August the Wildlife Rangers asked if they could keep some caterpillars they had found. We talked about what they would need for a habitat and that we had to look after them and once they had turned into butterflies we had to let them free.
The first thing the Wildlife Rangers did was look on the internet to how to make the best habitat for the critters, to keep them safe and well. Tracie found a fish tank in the shed which the Rangers cleaned to make into a little habitat.
The Rangers put some gravel, soil and plants into the tank to provide the caterpillars with food. They used an old lid from a coffee jar and filled with water for them to drink.
The caterpillars seemed happy munching away for a few days. The Rangers kept checking the tank every day, they showed the younger Wanderers and Seedlings the tank and told them all about the facts they had found out about the mini beasts.
One day, when the Wildlife Rangers checked on the caterpillars they said they had all gone and asked me if I had let them go? I asked the children to go back and take a good look in the tank. They were delighted to find they had changed into chrysalises. The children kept an eye on the chrysalises every day. In September, the Rangers found one had hatched into a White Butterfly. They were all delighted. Within the week all the butterflies had hatched and were flying around. We decided it was time to set them free.
Everyone watched as Tracie opened the lid. What happened next we did not imagine, they flew out onto Tracie then flew off on their travels!
Last month we all set up our new Wormery and sent off a coupon for the worms to be sent to us. It took a few weeks for them to arrive, so while we waited we saved up all our fruit and vegetable peelings for them to eat.
On delivery day, Tracie carefully opened the package and we all peered into the box to see hundreds of very wriggly worms. Ivor and Tracie were the only ones to pick one up carefully. The worm wriggled and tickled!
We all went outside and opened up the Wormery at the bedding tray. Tracie gently poured all the worms in and we carefully closed the tray but quickly, so they wouldn’t escape and to keep them in the dark as they don’t like sunlight.
We all went and washed our hands, then sat down while Tracie read us the story Yucky Worms (by Vivian French) that taught us all about worms.
Today Ivor, Martha and Tracie went on a vegetable hunt to see what they could make for tea. Ivor and Martha both found some onions to pull out and then Ivor found some of the rainbow carrots were ready to munch on.
They didn’t quite make the kitchen because we washed them with the outdoor tap and ate them all up! Martha said they were very crunchy and juicy. Ivor had too much in his mouth to answer.
Tracie's Treasures 