There are six areas that can be used for planting as well as space between them to place things like a greenhouse. Our school Chaplain thought it was a good idea to have a remembrance garden where pupils who may have suffered family losses might plant a bulb.
The pupils first dug a shallow channel, lined it with a membrane to prevent weeds coming through then put barrow after barrow of shingle down which was then raked into place. We have started the remembrance garden but still have a lot to do. We have built a large pergola which will take a water supply over to the greenhouse when we get time to set it up.
Mr Ratcliffe and Mr Curtiss spent a whole day at the end of the spring term setting up a few raised beds which they planted with tomatoes, runner beans and various herbs.
Recently Mr Ratcliffe was able to recruit a number of year 9 pupils for two days. They were fantastic and worked really hard. After clearing a huge amount of weeds they set up some larger raised beds and made a path around each one which meant that we could walk around the beds without treading mud everywhere.
We are aiming to grow all our plants/ vegetable from seeds that have been sown in our greenhouse. This will have an automatic watering system which means that we do not have to worry about weekend watering. As with all garden projects, everything cannot be done immediately, so we have a vision of what we would like to do.
As well as growing produce that we can eat we will continue to set up more raised beds. There will be an area with some tables and benches for staff to have a 'quiet' space to work in weather permitting. If finances allow us, we will build maybe more pergolas across the back of the school. These will have various climbing plants growing up which hopefully will give a softer appearance to the back of the school. All we need now is time, volunteers and of course funds. Hopefully we will be able to get some sponsors to help us achieve our aims.
