catherine June 7th, 2010
The builders who are replacing the footpath up Restalrig Road kindly said we could have some of their pallets to build a big compost bin, so I dragged them down to the school this morning, and built this
Made from pallets
Also spoke to Dobbies’ Community Champion on the phone and they are going to give us £60 worth of plants which I can collect tomorrow!
So all in all, quite a productive morning!
catherine June 4th, 2010
This is what a lot of helpers have been doing over the last year. This is the veg garden with its 7 new raised beds. To get this far we had to excavate two skip loads of rubble so that we could get in an extra foot of soil under the beds but we bagged and reused all the good stone chips for paths in between.
Now the P1s to 5s have made a start on planting and sowing.
More pics to follow.
catherine May 26th, 2010
Just heard today that the school is to receive another Action Earth Grant of £50 to purchase wild and wildlife friendly plants for the wildlife border.
catherine May 18th, 2010
Winning a box of veg seedlings from Rocket Gardens in a draw on the back of last year’s school photograph pack was a great help in getting us started.
catherine May 11th, 2010
Our raised beds have now all been delivered. They are really sturdy and look great - must post some pictures. Five are ready to plant up, the last two just need filling!
catherine November 5th, 2009
Finally things are cracking along. Grateful thanks are due to Bridget, Catherine, Jackie, Laura, Monica, Pat, Philippa, and Ros, who all helped to put in place the new raised beds, fill them, and excavate the rubble in the second border filling the hole with soil. Together we shifted 11 builder’s bulk bags of soil and compost and about 8 cubic metres of rubble. Four more raised beds will now be ordered, so that each year group can have its own. There was a problem with the original potential supplier of the beds, so we had a rethink and ordered ones from Forth Resource Management which are made from pressure treated new railway sleepers. They look really brilliant and sturdy, and are ready for planting in the spring.
Thanks also to Xanthe Bird who helped me put roofing felt on the shed while we balanced on two tables, breaking all health, safety and insurance requirements…. All it needs now are replacement windows to make it secure.
Our mushroom seats and carved animals, chosen by last year’s P1 have come and look great. They will need to be concreted in, so that they don’t get stolen or heaved over the wall. And our B&Q donation of tools and garden materials has also arrived.
catherine September 26th, 2009
Things are moving ahead very slowly in the garden, but they are moving ahead!
Please see the St Mary’s Thanks… page for details of the ways in which many people have been very generous with donations of their time, funds and materials.
What next? Well, our wheelbarrow was stolen during the holidays, and we just await the arrival of a new one so we can barrow the topsoil into the new raised beds. Soon a skip will arrive and the next job is to clear the rubble from the second area.
catherine August 27th, 2009
Back to a new term! In the holidays we were lucky to receive two more awards. We received £250 from the G&H Roberts Community Trust, and so we now have all the funds we need to install raised beds for growing veg. We have also been awarded a B&Q One Planet grant of £213 worth of materials from the store in Easter Road - this includes some masonry paint and woodstain for the shed, some guttering so that we can run water from the shed roof into the water butt and some tools and other gardening equipment.
Unfortunately, vandals broke all the shed windows during the holiday….c’est la vie.
The pumpkin plant sowed by Mrs Williams’s primary 1 class last year is rampaging out of its pot and is covered with flowers, so fingers crossed for some actual pumpkins!
catherine July 7th, 2009
Just heard that the school will receive another grant from a trust towards the purchase of topsoil. The cheque is being sent to the school. Details to be confirmed.
catherine June 26th, 2009
The holidays are nearly here! Our raised beds still haven’t arrived, and we are awaiting the results of a grant application which might enable us to buy compost and topsoil to put in them. The mushroom seats which we will be able to buy with the Rotary Club grant will go at the end of the wildlife border so this will stay as it is until these arrive as they will probably have to be concreted in - we can then plant things round them and get this end of the border looking really great. If we are successful with other grant applications we have made, we will be able to buy some ferns and other plants.
Although it sometimes doesn’t seem as if there’s been much progress as we wait for funds and materials, things are moving slowly on. Two Catherines dug out the old pond liner as it had been filled with rubble and pretty much collapsed. It was a very smelly job…. Now a new liner can go in, and then perhaps we will have frogs again. The pumpkin plants that Mrs William’s class grew are doing well, despite the best efforts of a fox to dig one of them up last night! The broken window on the greenhouse has been fixed with the help of a donation of perspex from freecycle, and the felt is going on shortly.