GC – Tracie's Treasures

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!!

Garden Classroom, Seedlings

Gardeners’ World Recommends…

Posted on 28th Mar 202128th Mar 2021 by Tracie Dowling

Every Saturday morning and my day off, first thing I always do is stick the kettle on, get the tea pot out and pop in a bagel to toast.

I then go into the snug and pour out my first cuppa of the day (and I have quite a few!!)

Next it’s feet up, cat on lap and on goes Friday night’s Gardeners’ World. Our Monty Don brightens up the morning. He tells me how to grow all the fruit and vegetables the children love to eat. I have my jotter ready for recommendations and what I need to do for that weekend.

This week our Monty recommended Padron Chillies. Well my face dropped! I can’t stand Chillies, way too hot for me! Monty went on to say they are not hot but fruity!

Shall I give them a go? I chickened out, thinking there’s no point getting them when we have other types chillies growing for the children and our families.

Monday morning who’s ringing my door bell? It’s Granny Smith waving a bag of Padron Chillies!

She says “Our Monty recommended these chillies last night on Gardeners’ World!”

“Really?” I said “I never watch it!” Hehehe.

So I think about it for a while, well if I have to try them, Emma and the children do too!

Georgia did a thumbs up, she said it was delicious.

Emma thought it was sweet but it repeated on her.

Sophie and Luke wouldn’t try it at all

I was so brave, I had two bites! It wasn’t hot in-fact, it’ll be lovely in a Chicken Kebab! Mixed reviews from the children, but thanks Monty Don for recommending the Padron Chillies!

Tracie x

Seedlings, wanderers

Recycling and Growing Seeds

Posted on 18th Feb 202111th Aug 2021 by Tracie Dowling

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.

Garden Classroom, Seedlings

Icy Outdoor Play

Posted on 8th Feb 202111th Aug 2021 by Tracie Dowling

On our walk around the garden today we found everything had turned to ice! Theo pointed to the spade and Fearne tried to pick it up. When we carefully moved the spade we saw it had left a print in the ice in the shape of a spade!

We decided to look around the garden and find different shapes and frozen solid items.

While we were looking for frozen areas around the garden, Fearne found:

Theo copied Fearne, looking around and found:

Its lovely to find winter treasures in our garden! What have you got growing or freezing in your garden this winter?

Garden Classroom, Seedlings

Hand Picked Flower Printing

Posted on 5th Feb 202111th Aug 2021 by Tracie Dowling

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.

family, Garden Classroom

Garden Challenge 2021: Tracie’s Focus Area

Posted on 4th Feb 20218th Feb 2021 by Tracie Dowling

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.

family, Garden Classroom

Garden Challenge 2021: Gemma’s Garden

Posted on 3rd Feb 20218th Feb 2021 by Tracie Dowling

Here is Gemma’s garden on a sunny day in February! Let’s get digging!

family, Garden Classroom

Garden Challenge 2021

Posted on 1st Feb 20218th Feb 2021 by Tracie Dowling

We are three generations of gardeners starting a gardening challenge to see the difference in the ways we garden and grow!

We will all have the same seeds and grow them in our own ways. We will give regular updates and are looking forward to sharing the results. Follow the Garden Challenge with our hashtag GardenChallenge2021!

Garden Classroom

Our Garden Plans – Rainbow Colours!

Posted on 18th Jan 20212nd Feb 2021 by Tracie Dowling

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.

Garden Classroom, Seedlings

Pumpkin Printing

Posted on 20th Oct 20202nd Feb 2021 by Tracie Dowling

Following our lovely activity with leaf printing we decided it would be good to use the baby pumpkins, that Georgia kindly brought in, to make pictures.

Tracie set the activity up and the children loved it so much they wanted to print on other materials. When we had finished, Leo asked if we could make other pumpkin pictures. Emma helped the children make a display for our wall.