GardenChallenge2021 – Tracie's Treasures

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Garden Challenge 2021: Phylis’s Garden

Posted on 17th Oct 20216th Mar 2022 by Tracie Dowling

We have had ups and downs during this year with our gardens. Here is a round up of how Phyllis’ gardening went..

These pictures are from Phyllis’ front garden, it gets full sun most of the day. The lovely well planter was made by Frank, he has hung bird feeders and hidden bird boxes in the roof. He also made the wooden tiered planter where the vegetables are growing for their yummy, fresh Christmas dinner.

Phyllis had a bumper crop of fruit and vegetables this year, here are a few pictures to show how well she did!

It’s been a hard year and being in the garden has given Phyllis a project which she has thoroughly enjoyed. Next year Phyllis is going to focus on flowers, including a wildflower patch to encourage wildlife.

No better way to prove how amazing it is to grow your own, a delicious fresh Sunday lunch! Where’s mine?

childminding, family, Garden Classroom, rangers, Seedlings, wanderers

Garden Challenge 2021: Tracie’s Update

Posted on 6th Aug 20216th Mar 2022 by Tracie Dowling

When Sophie and I walked around the garden, I asked her to pick out her favourite fruit and vegetables we are growing. Well, she chose these lovely Lilies. Not quite what I asked for but she’s right they are lovely.

While we are talking Lilies, look at our amazing 8 foot Lily trees. They tower so high and they are so fragrant you can smell them all around the garden.

Back to our fruit and vegetables, below is our cucumber and we have grown conjoined twins! Double the trouble and size! Poppy ate it in one sitting!! She said they were delicious.

Our apples are coming on nicely, they are getting plumper, Monty Don says you can tell when they are ready as they twist off easily. Guess we’ve got to keep waiting. Be worth it though. We also have onions, tomatoes and strawberries growing strong.

In the greenhouse the Luffa vines are growing tall and strong. When they fruit the children are going to make luffa soaps.

The Cucumbers and Chillies have now left the greenhouse and are in the garden growing strong. Tracie watered everything and added tomato feed to give them a boost.

Our new project this summer is the bath pond. We had our bathroom turned into a wet room and thought the cast iron bath could be up cycled into a large pond. Our growing tadpoles and frogs will have more space and we might even get some fish! We will add photos next time.

childminding, Garden Classroom, Seedlings, wanderers

Garden Challenge 2021: Phyllis’ update

Posted on 6th Aug 20216th Mar 2022 by Tracie Dowling

Phyllis has been busy collecting her fruits and vegetables that she started growing earlier in the year.

Phyllis has grown some lovely beetroot which is Tracie’s favourite. They are tasty in a salad or as a compliment in a comforting Scouse. The peppers in the greenhouse are looking good! Chloe loves to munch on these for a healthy snack.

At the moment the tomatoes are still green, but by next week with a lot of sunny weather, they will soon turn red and be ready to eat with the beetroot in a summer salad!

The carrots are looking fabulous watch out for any rabbits Phyllis this is their favourite snack!

As you can see, Phyllis has a vast variety of fruits and vegetables growing. Looks like all her time in the garden has paid off.

Garden Classroom, rangers, Seedlings, wanderers

Garden Challenge 2021: Tracie’s Treasures

Posted on 25th Jun 202110th Aug 2021 by Tracie Dowling

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!

Below are our other tasty fruits and vegetables we have growing in the garden.

This is a collection of photos of the plants the Rangers and Wanderers wanted me to post.

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!

Our other problem was the giant Poppies, they have over taken our vegetable patch!

family, rangers

Garden Challenge 2021: Gemma’s Garden

Posted on 20th Jun 202110th Aug 2021 by Tracie Dowling

Gemma’s vegetable beds are amazing and full of lush green produce. When the days are sunny Gemma gets Chloe to help water them.

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.

family, Garden Classroom

Garden Challenge 2021: Phyllis update

Posted on 20th Jun 202110th Aug 2021 by Tracie Dowling

Phyllis has been working very hard in her garden over the last few months and it’s all just starting to pay off. Below are just a few of her amazing flowers, they come in all sizes, shapes and amazing colours.

In the edible part of the garden, Phyllis’s fruit and vegetables are growing strong.

Watch out for your cherries Phyllis, I saw a cheeky blackbird flying around, eyeing them up for lunch!

The tomato vines are growing tall and strong, Phyllis is having to use canes to support the stems and cuts the side shots off to ensure the goodness goes into the growing delicious tomatoes.

Phylis has made a delicious Sunday roast using the potatoes and cabbage from her garden. They taste so much better than the ones you buy in the shops. What I want to know is where’s mine!!

This is Phyllis’ Christmas Dinner bed! She has made it in her front garden and all the vegetables will be used on Christmas day! I cant wait to see it all dished up, I had better get an invite!!!

Garden Classroom, rangers, Seedlings, Uncategorized, wanderers

Garden Challenge 2021: Tracie’s Treasures

Posted on 13th May 202110th Aug 2021 by Tracie Dowling

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 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.

family, Garden Classroom, Seedlings

Garden Challenge 2021: Phyllis’ May Garden

Posted on 12th May 202110th Aug 2021 by Tracie Dowling

Phyllis has been working hard in her Garden and all the plants are growing well.

The nets Phyllis has had to put up isn’t to stop the birds and pests, its to protect the crops from Hebe the cat!

What a pickle Hebe is! Everywhere Phyllis is, Hebe’s not far away causing mayhem!

All the vegetables are looking lush and growing big and strong. Phyllis has to keep mowing the grass to make it look nice and tidy.

The fruit is coming along too! There will be lovely ripe strawberries to pick and eat, they will go well with scones and cream in June! Something for us to look forward too!

Mind you that’s if they actually get to the kitchen! I know a few Treasures who like to pick and eat them before Phyllis gets a chance!!

Frank has made a Tomato planter in the greenhouse, Phyllis has planted the tomato plants the seedlings have grown for her, there are cucumbers growing too! All you need is onions and you have a salad!

Phyllis has also got lots of lovely colourful flowers around her garden to encourage the bees and butterflies. She has sent me pictures of them, below are my favourite ones. I bet they smell amazing.

family, Garden Classroom, rangers, Uncategorized

Garden Challenge 2021: Gemma’s May Update

Posted on 12th May 202110th Aug 2021 by Tracie Dowling

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!

Garden Classroom, Uncategorized

Strawberry Potting On with the Seedlings

Posted on 21st Apr 202110th Aug 2021 by Tracie Dowling

Today the seedlings and Tracie went over to the greenhouse to check on their strawberry seeds.

Georgia said she thought there will be loads of strawberries all ready to eat! Tracie said it was too early in the year for strawberry picking, we just want strong healthy plants at the moment.

We opened the door and peaked in, Georgia huffed, “No strawberries in here!”

Tracie took a tray from the side and showed everyone. These are the seedlings we sowed and they have all grown really well, in fact, so well we need to re-pot them so they can get bigger!

Tracie explained to a disappointed Georgia and Sophie that the plants need to grow big and strong. When it’s June and we have lovely hot weather little white flowers will appear, then the strawberry fruit will soon be here.

Tracie took the trays of strawberry plants over to the table where she had prepared soil, toilet roll inserts, scissors and gardening tools ready for repotting the growing plants.

First the seedlings cut each toilet roll inserts into 3 pieces. Then they carefully placed them all into a tray. The seedlings took turns to fill each roll with soil.

Using a fork tool, Tracie carefully moved each seedling into a roll. The Seedlings took turns to gently push them down into the soil.

The plants now have little individual pots to give them space to grow.

All the seedlings worked hard together as a team to re-pot them and are really looking forward to the summer when we can all eat strawberries for afternoon tea. Maybe a game of tennis too!!