14th October 2004

Grow Garden, Grow!

The fruits and vegetables of many plants have been harvested, but still many grow on. The seething green mass of nasturtiums grow relentlessly outwards.

Spot the Bean

Although it looks just like a mass of green, the beans plants are still laden with a huge weight of beans, ready to be harvested and donated to the school.

Beans Galore

The Runner Bean plants that 'E' bought in have done well. Although they didn't grow a lot of leaves, the flowers were very attractive to the bees and were all pollinated. As a result, there is now a healthy bunch of beans on the plants, ready to be picked.

Who's Beeen Eating My Strawberries?

The Strawberry plant that appeared by itself in our garden has had a lot of fruits this year. However, you have to be quick to get to them before all our other visitors in the garden. All too often, I have seen a juicy red strawberry, only to find that I have only found the left-overs from a slug's meal.

Don't Eat These Fruits

The Mock Orange that grows quietly in the corner of our garden joined in with dropping its fruits onto the garden floor. Although they look tasty, they would not be very good to eat. These I will leave to the slugs.

First the Tree Stump; Next the World...

The Nasturtiums, to the shock of Mr S., are growing like crazy in their bid to take over the garden. They have even grown over the path to stop people from getting by. I wonder if we'll ever find the class that went missing in the garden the other week...?

Just Finished

The sunflowers were as spectacular as ever, and have now come to the end of their flowering lives. Did you know that each sunflower head is made up of thousands of tiny flowers? After the outside yellow petals have fallen off, each tiny flower inside will turn into a sunflower seed (if they have been pollinated by a passing bee, of course!)

Such Messy Trees!

We always ask people not to drop litter as it makes the place look messy, and yet the trees are the worst of the lot for dropping stuff all over the place. What's the difference? Well, tree litter is natural, will biodegrade (you won't see any of it next spring as it will have rotted away!) and is important to help other plants grow. Our litter isn't natural, will often not biodegrade and can harm nature. At the very least, our litter looks very ugly. Can the same be said for this Horse Chestnut litter?

A Game of Conkers anyone?

There are many ways that we use nature to help us - for building, for medicine, for dying clothes different colours, to make a garden look fantastic and, of course, for games! My class looked through a set of instructions for playing conkers, and even knew some of the tricks of the trade to help create a winning conker. If this one escapes being made into a champion, it may grow into a new conker tree.

Don't Play with These

Some plants look very beautiful when they are flowing, and can look interesting at other times of the year. However, it is not always a good idea to pick and play with or eat plants. The Laburnum tree looks spectacular when it is in flower, with cascading yellow flowers all over it. The seeds (left) still look interesting but it would be silly to play with them or, even worse, to eat them. They are poisonous and they can make somebody very ill if they were to eat the seeds. If in any doubt about a plant at all, it is best to leave it well alone!

Compost Galore!

The compost heap at the bottom of the garden seems to always be hungry. No matter how much organic stuff (from plants) is put on it, it is never full. This is because a good compost heap will always be working to rot down whatever it has put on it, making space for more. With the amount of stuff that goes on ours, it must be brilliant! The compost it makes will be used on the garden to help future plants grow.