A Leith Gardener

Opening day

catherine — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 21:05:10 +0000

Good Day’s Work

catherine — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 11:53:00 +0000

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

with Joachim’s help. You can buy bins like this, but they cost about £30, so this was a satisfying bit of recycling and now we have somewhere to put the fallen leaves from the playground.

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!

What we’ve been doing for the last year!

catherine — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 18:52:00 +0000

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.

A new grant

catherine — Wed, 26 May 2010 21:07:30 +0000

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.

Raised beds get planted!

catherine — Tue, 18 May 2010 20:33:55 +0000

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.

Raised beds in place!

catherine — Tue, 11 May 2010 10:30:21 +0000

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!

November update

catherine — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:46:17 +0000

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.

Garden update

catherine — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 16:30:37 +0000

Things are moving ahead very slowly in the garden, but they are moving ahead!

Our grant from the G&H Roberts Community Trust, has enabled us to buy some quality topsoil for our raised vegetable beds. Nine builders bags full have arrived, and we are just waiting the arrival of some of the raised beds which are expected shortly.

Our grant of £350, from Edinburgh Rotary Club is going towards mushroom seats for the garden. These were chosen by Mrs Macmanus’s P1 class last year and they are now on order; they include five mushroom seats of varying sizes, and as a bonus, a wooden owl, and a wooden hedgehog, all to go in wildlife border.

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 — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 10:04:27 +0000

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!

Another grant

catherine — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 06:55:49 +0000

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.