George came in this morning skipping full of the joys of spring, telling us how sunny it was outside. He asked if we could all go out to play in the sunshine
We decided to get out buckets and trowels to do a little weeding in the front garden because as George put it “tis a mess!”
George was so eager he went full bull in a china shop and pulled out the first flower he found, shoving it in my face. “Tracie, Tracie is this a weed?” “No George thats not a weed thats my tulip!”
“ I will take it home for my mummy she loves red roses!”
Elsie found a wiggly worm and called us over to have a look. Elsie moved on and found a snail which she described as “sticky, yuk” so I had to pick it up.
We just kept finding bugs so decided to ditch the weeding (probably safer if we want our flowers to survive George!) and turn the activity into a bug hunt.
We ended up finding, an ants nest with loads of ants marching around, a lily Beatle, lots of wood louse, a ladybird and a carrot! A carrot!! Guess who found that!!!
Yes George, found the carrot!
We went over nearer the house and found a lovely red Crocosmia, a hidden pansy, a blue Felicia and a fly on a leaf. This time it wasn’t George who found it, ‘twas Elsie’
CrocosmiaPansyFeliciaA fly on a leaf
What a lovely day out in the garden, lets hope the sun is shining tomorrow.
Today we walked around the garden to look at all the changes we made last year and to make notes on what we want to plan for this year.
Spring In The Garden
The winding footpath we made last year is ideal for walking and running about avoiding the messy mud. The children love how they can run around and peep through the planting bug hunting, plant spotting and watching everything grow. They love the bug pile and saw some worms and ants.
Cold FrameOur Seeds Are Now Young PlantsGeorgia PlantingPetunia
We have sown all our bedding plants this year to save money, we also used peat free compost to help save our planet. The seeds have now grown into healthy young plants so we potted them on, ( put into bigger pots) and put them into the cold frame to wait for the last frost, we will then put them in our living wall.
This years project is to make the decking area into a nicer living ‘Outdoor Classroom’ We have chosen
Petunia, Lobelia and Fuchsia’s to have trailing, ground cover in the vertical wall garden. We will add the Herbs (growing in our greenhouse) for tasting and smelling into the wall as soon as they have matured.
We have Roses, Honeysuckle, Jasmine and Passiflora for climbing up the trelliss and giving off a floral fragrance. Our aim is to make the ‘Outdoor Classroom stimulate all our five senses. To make the decking more accessible for the babies we are going to add Astro turf so it’s safer for them to crawl and play on.
We were so excited to see our frogs while out and about, they were keeping an eye on their spawn, this will soon turn into tadpoles and frogs. Tracie taught us how to carefully remove some of the water weeds and she added some bunches of watercress to freshen up the pond to make the water less Murky so we can see the pond life without disturbing them.
Clear Water Small PondApple Tree PondMr Croak Mrs CroakSpawn
Our Big Plans For This Year 2023:
We have decided in our living classroom we are going to:
Lay artificial grass to make the decking completely baby friendly.
Make a toy box storage area for outdoor equipment
Pot up the Herbs and make labels.
Make a water feature for relaxing sound and to have water play
In the Greenhouse we are going to grow:
Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Loofa , Chilli and start off our Cabbage, Cauliflower, and Broccoli
Sow winter flowering plants to give out Garden all year color and edibles.
In the front garden:
We want to encourage more wildlife in, so we are thinking about making a new pond, putting in more hedging, and adding some hidden bird feeders.
So we have BIG plans, so keep watching our blogs to see how we go….
We have had ups and downs during this year with our gardens. Here is a round up of how Phyllis’ gardening went..
Growing in Pots Door Step PlantingFrank’s WellHomemade Planter
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.
Front GardenChristmas Dinner
Phyllis had a bumper crop of fruit and vegetables this year, here are a few pictures to show how well she did!
What a CropCarrotsBeetrootPeppersTomatoes Potatoes Netting From Pests New Raised BedsGrowing SeedlingsBeautiful Baby Cucumber Butternut Squash Chillies
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.
Leaves Turning RedFuchsia Canopy of ClimbersGrowing Well
No better way to prove how amazing it is to grow your own, a delicious fresh Sunday lunch! Where’s mine?
The weather turned too cold and wet for a couple of days. We went to the park on the Monday and got drenched so we all decided to have a games day. The sun ended up coming back out!!
What Am I?Am I Sweet?
We loved the game ‘Fast Fish’ it was fun rolling the dice and predicting the colours of the fish we had to rush and find. Jack beat Tracie and Martha beat everyone!
Connect 4 Fast FishBlue, Purple and Pink Go Go GoChloe and JackJacy is Ace at Chess!
Poppy and Sophia love anything Japanese at the moment so after the cinema we decided to pop in to Yo Sushi to try some new foods. The girls loved trying to use chopsticks, it made our lunchtime last forever!
Sophia Not So SureHaving a TryChop Sticks Collecting The Food
While in town, we decided to have a walk about. The girls loved climbing the suitcases on Hope Street.
Paddy’s WigwamReaching the TopLeaving Home? Statue
Back at our setting we were busy painting our rocks that we made last week.
Jack is a StarBig Jack Ivor and Martha SoohieIvor Loved Painting
Tracie and some of the children went on a trip to Acorn Farm. We went into the petting station and loved sitting still and stroking the animals. Tracie made a friend with a goat and Jack loved the meerkats.
Play Time Who You Looking At? Big RabbitPlaying The DrumSelfie Jack and The SheepChloeTime To Pet The AnimalsChickensCheeky Goats
Emma went on a trip to Hollywood Bowl. They all jumped on a bus, played a couple of games and had a lovely lunch! What a lovely fun end to a busy second week!
Wonder what fun we will have in week three!? The summer holidays are going fast!
We had a lovely day out today at the World Museum Liverpool. The sun was shining and the children were on their best behaviour!
First of all, we caught a bus from outside our setting to the city centre. Not this bus though boys! Think of all the delicious cakes we would have had, we would have never have got off that bus would we boys!!
Large Tank
Where’s Nemo?
Big Fish
Peeping 👀
First stop, we took a dive into the newly updated deep-blue aquarium, the tanks were much bigger, had new species of aquatics, immersive projections and even an octopus called Polpo! He was so cute and wanted to get up close and personal with the children giving them all high fives! (Or is that 8’s)
Hi Guys
Say Cheesy Crabs
High 8
The children then got up close with the hermit crabs, starfish and brightly-coloured wrasse from Liverpool’s Irish Sea coast. Alfie and Jacy popped their heads into the viewing bubbles to see the terrapins immersed in the water who are rescued pets, they love to see a friendly face.
Viewing BubblePoppy Loved The Star Fish
With new projections, we learned about conservation efforts to protect our seas, discover where the sealife live and even what you might find rock-pooling locally and across the UK. Jacy and Poppy talked all about the sea urchins and jellyfish they have seen on Crosby beach.
Rock Pool
Alfie
Alfie and Mason
Alfie and Mason loved watching the Nemo fish (if Tracie didn’t pick Alfie up!), rays, skates and smiling sharks even with lots of teeth!
Jacy and the Sloth
Jacy loved it when he found a Sloth as it is his favourite animal in the “whole universe!”
Poppy Loved the Animals
Next we all went to Egypt where we looked at mummies (probably daddies too!), artefacts and learned all about the ancient Egyptians.
Ancient Egypt
Alfie
Walking The Nile
Jacy and the boys went on a journey around Egypt and walked down the River Nile.
Last stop in our Liverpool World Museum tour was outside using chalks and making pictures of what we had seen for everyone to look at.
Working Together
Jacy’s Sloth
Spongebob By Mason
Poppys Aquarium
Thank you Liverpool World Museum for an amazing day 😁🌏🦑
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?
Phyllis has definitely been working hard in her garden since we last visited her.
Bird Homes
Haven for Birds and Insects
Front Garden
The little pool Phyllis made out of an old wheelbarrow for the birds and insects is now a haven for them. She has planted pond flowers, plants and a frog which is a fun addition.
Phyllis has worked hard in the front garden to provide the birds with quiet areas to feed and nest safely. There have been loads of bumble bees seen getting the nectar from the flowers.
In the greenhouse there are loads of seeds growing well. Phyllis has taken lots of cuttings from different plants in her garden to make more for free! Everything will need to be planted out soon.
This is Tracie’s favourite picture of Phyllis’ garden. Everything is lush and growing well and it’s all proof Spring is definitely here.
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!
Spade Stuckk in the Ice
Guess What we Moved?
Icy Play
Small World Play
Breaking the Ice for the Birds to Drink
We decided to look around the garden and find different shapes and frozen solid items.
Barrel Pond
Bird Bath
Bucket
Small Pond
Fountain
Poppy Bird Feeder
While we were looking for frozen areas around the garden, Fearne found:
Periwinkle
Hyacinth Shoots
A Purple Crocus
Theo copied Fearne, looking around and found:
Primrose
Hellebore
Snowdrop
Daffodils
Its lovely to find winter treasures in our garden! What have you got growing or freezing in your garden this winter?
This summer the children have been helping us make mini pond habitats around the garden. Our tadpoles have turned into amazing frogs and we keep finding them hopping around the garden in various places trying to get away from our cats.
We decided to make four mini hiding pools for them between the two main ponds. Hopefully they will use them to jump in and hide while going from one pond to the other to see their friends and family.
Little Seedling’s PoolWonderful Wanderer’s PoolWildlife Ranger’s PoolMain Pool
Tracie's Treasures 