Level 3 achieved

Finally we have achieved Level 3 in School Gardening from the RHS program. 

This will help us to develop our garden by planning and plating seasonal. Why? Because this time the prizes are series of boxes brimming full of young vegetable and fruit plants during school term times ready to help our patch.

It's so exited that apart of  keep working on our current plants we need to start thinking on getting our growing space ready for September.

Planting out again for the third time.

The slugs has been eating all our crops and we are trying to keep our new crop safe.We use ground coffee and sand to deter the slugs and snails but the weather is not helping either and it is washing everything away.
We are hoping that this time, our plants will survive and get strong enough to give some produce.

 Growing morning Glories on recycled welly boots

 Trying to deter slugs of eating out squash

Also, we have made our herb planter next to the mud kitchen so we can season our pretending food during our play.

Donations!! We want to thank you.

We have had some donations from people from the community that we want to thanks. Tools, plants, pots and seeds that we really need and we appreciate. Hopefully this contact with the community will continue growing stronger each day.

Also the Aldi at Church Road, contributed with our project by donating a big amount of flowers that we share between the provisions of Knowle West Children's Centre but also with other projects like the Springfield allotments and the Local officer for the front garden completion that is going on around The Knowle area.

To get our share planted, we called out for help to our parents.

ALDI at Church Road big donation. 

 

Parents has come to help us platting.

They are doing great in our front!

All sort of news

During the last few month we have been really busy thinking about to keep developing our garden possibilities.

First, we achieved the Level 2 of the School Gardening Awards, sponsored by the RHS. Now, we are hoping to get the Level 3 soon and work on the next level during the summer term.

Also, we have been in touch with the One tree per Child project, here in Bristol. They donated 10 apple trees that we planted and looking after them carefully we got the in bloom a few weeks ago so now we are monitoring the trees seeking for the first signs of any fruit. 

Much more have happened but we will save the news for the next post! 

Autumn

It is a quiet time in our garden in terms of doing jobs but we still keep ourselves busy by collecting seeds from our garden flowers but also collecting the potatoes that we sowed at the beginning of September. We had to collect them earlier than planned because we haven't found an organic solution to avoid the slugs and snails eating our harvest. However we collected a few dozen new potatoes so hopefully we will be able to eat them in a potato salad or keep them to replant in the future.

On a separate note, we have exciting news in that we have been awarded Level One in the RHS School Gardening Awards! So what does this mean for our project? Well, it means that we will get support and guidance to convert our garden into a successful learning resource. So by following their guidelines and proving to them our achievements, we aim to reach Level 5 in the future....watch this space!!

Level 1 Certificate

Habitat Identification Guides

Welcome to our garden

Here at Inns Court we have a wonderful, spacious garden where our children like to play. It's a great resource for learning and we are really keen to maximise every learning opportunity. 

Using it as our own allotment, we have planted and harvested tomatoes, strawberries, and runner beans (amongst other things) and we would like to continue this path to introduce a healthy lifestyle to our children and community. Also farming English farming traditions and festivities will give our learning planning a splash of history by following the planting season in the UK.

During the past few months we have been seeking sponsorship, asking local shops and businesses for donations to help our garden project. We are not seeking money, just materials and tools that could help us create new ideas. For example, scaffolding planks for planters, flowers and seeds to enhance the look of our centre, soil, etc. 

I'm pleased to say that we have had a fantastic response and people have been extremely generous. With help from the workers of Knowle West Children's Centre who have kindly donated some of their own plants as well as daily work and care, our garden looks full of life. We have also had great support from the workers of Springfield allotments whose advice has been invaluable.

Furthermore, I'm thrilled to announce that after arranging a meeting with the store manager, Tesco Extra Brislington have kindly agreed to partner with us to supply plants and garden resources on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. This will give the project a huge boost and We are looking forward to some great things for our community in the future.