6th February 2004

The Garden uncovered

Now the big freeze has gone (and the extremely mild weather has made sure of that), we can now have a good look at the Garden to see what needs to be done. Lots. However, it won't be happening for a few weeks yet. The persistent rain has made sure that the ground is unworkable for a while longer, so I'll just go and put the kettle on and have a bit of thinking space...

The Garden on the move

However, the Garden is not going to stay still until we can get to work on it. Already there are bulbs bursting out of the ground in the main garden, twigs sparking into life with their tiny, bright green feathery leaves, and, of course, the weeds are no doubt deep in a conference somewhere planning their attack for the springtime.

The garden is alive with the chatter of birds and can be quite a noisy place to be at times. Perhaps they are trying to out-do the children in the playground close by?

The 'children' of last year's Garden

The seeds from last year are already fighting to be first in the growing queue. Having planted some poached egg plants last year as an easy and colourful addition to the garden, I suspect that they may become a weed this year. After all, a weed is only a plant that we think is in the wrong place.

I will flower this year. Honest!

The Garden still contains many die-hards, who lived on through the freezing weather and snow. Many of these are perennials, such as the trees, bulbs and shrubs, who live on year after year. Some of these are biannuals, who live for two years, often growing leaves the first year and then flowering the next (Then they cop it!). This would explain why the Honesty (see right) that we planted last year grew very well, and looked very green, but did little else. I am expecting some amazing flowery results this year...

Spinach is forever...

Although I am not on the verge of setting up a Spinach fan club, I do like Spinach when it is cooked properly. So I am pleased to see that the leaves that were frozen only a week ago have survived and look just as healthy as before. However, it will probably go the same way as the Honesty this year, copping it after producing lots of flowers (they are not very interesting - just small and greenish, so they are not worth keeping as a flowery display). This is a plant that is best grown again from fresh seeds.

Thoughts of a mini-garden hippo

So what does the mini-garden hippo think to it all? Well, he's still on his tree stump, come rain or shine, pondering about what he's going to get up to this year. That's the thing about mini-garden hippos, they always have so many decisions to make, all of which need a great deal of thought.

Mr S. warned me of rumours he's heard that the hippo was thinking of moving to another part of the garden for a while, so I wouldn't be suprised if I don't see him for a few days.

The School Eco-Committee

Although the school Garden, as an educational resource, began last year, it is by no means the beginning of raising environmental awareness within the school. For many years, the School Eco-Committee has been working hard to improve the school grounds, cut down on energy use within the school, recycle paper, plants trees, provide food for animals (can you see the bird feeders to the right?), raise money for it's work by selling bulbs, and much more. This has been recognised by our school who really are getting switched on to what the environment is all about and what we can do to it, the national Eco-Council who awarded us with an flag last year to awknowledge our status as an Eco-School, and the media who have been in umpteen times to report on what's going on.

Although the Garden and the Eco-Committee are run as two seperate clubs (this helps with the time, management and pupil numbers involved with both clubs), they follow along similar principles, we often talk about various ideas and will help each other out when needed.