Only 2 weeks to go for all entries

Remember the date for all garden entries must be received by Feb 15th. Time is ticking get the colours out and get everyone involved including mums and dads. What would they like in a wildlife garden?
Happy designing!

Then there were 5

5 of the beds are now built with one to go hopefully the weather will hold off long enough to finish the rest.

Work continues

Work is slowly continuing. The mounds of turf are disappearing and the beds are looking more like the way they are supposed to look.

It never rains but it pours!

The weather seems to determined to make sure that the beds will not be ready for the growing season. With heavy downpours all week it has been tough going, moving the soil and removing the surface water. The soil below has got quite a lot of clay in it which stops the rain draining deep into the ground. Hope fully in the next few days there won't be too much and we can get back to finishing the last couple of beds and getting the paths laid.

Most of the turf has now been buried under the beds with only a little bit left to fill any voids.

How low can you go?

The PTFA have helped this project out by purchasing the timber, liner and pea shingle to create some of the paths. A huge thank you to them and to all of those responsible for raising the money in the first place.

Also a big thank you to our 2 Woodlands students and Duke of Edinburgh Awards volunteers Abi and Jo, thanks for all of your hard work getting the project this far.

This is the current state of the plot. As you can see 4 of the 6 beds are almost complete.

They need a little bit of topping up with good nutritious compost.

Because of the amount of turf which was taken off, rather than finding a place to dump it, the topsoil has been removed and holes dug so that they can be back filled with the turf, which will rot down and provide the soil in the beds with nutrients that the plants roots should be able to find and encourage better, healthy plants. You can see how deep the hole is by looking at the depth compared to the size of the shovel.

NWF Garden Centre Wildlife Competition

We are asking you to take part in a national competition designing the perfect Wildlife Garden for your school. We want to get the children excited about the outdoors again, finding out about the wildlife in their own school playground and their own back gardens. You never know, we may even find the next David Belamy.

Take a look at this website for more details of the competition.

The winner gets their garden made for them in the Portway grounds for present and future pupils to enjoy.

http://www.nwfagriculture.co.uk/retail/swlp/index.html

Follow this link for hints and tips of what to include in your design

http://www.nwfagriculture.co.uk/retail/swlp/hintsandtips.html

All entries need to be returned to Mr Oldfield or the entry box by the office by Friday 15th February 2008

First bulbs sighted

The bulbs around the school are beginning to show. The tops are just peeping through the turf at the moment. In the next couple of months they should be fully through, giving us a cascade of vibrant colours.