Welcome to the new Secret Gardeners

The founding members of The Secret Gardening Club have moved onto secondary schools. A new team of budding young horticulturists is being groomed to take the hoe. Once they've finished planting their broad beans, I'm sure they will be ready to get blogging. Watch this space!

Broad beans, cabbage and pak choy!

Lots has been happening over the last couple of weeks.  So much that I haven't had time to blog!!  Lots of new plants have gone in; cabbages, pak choy and tomatoes and we've got pumpkin and bean seedlings ready to go in next week.  

Here's a picture of the pak choy going in ...

Look at our red cabbages (sorry it's sideways!)

And finally ...  how about our broad beans!  They were delicious!  We took them to our cook Janine and she cooked them with a bit of oil and parmesan and we shared them then look the leftovers to the staff room for the teachers.  They loved them too.

In the next couple of weeks we need to sort out our compost as it's gone a bit smelly in the heat!  My mum says we need more grass and cardboard and less vegetable bits as it's all seeping out of the bottom - YUKKKKK.

Newspaper pots

Today we bought in newspaper and all made some newspaper pots to plant peas, beans and pumpkins in.

We then filled them with compost and popped two seeds in each, but only one for the pumpkins because the plants get so big.

After that we left them in our new shed so that they would stay warm and start to grow.

Meanwhile some of the gardeners were helping to trim the grass around the beds as it has got very high!

Potato planting

today we decided that it was just the right time to plant our potatoes, which had been chitting at a gardeners house until they were ready.

we also saw how much the strawberries and onions have grown!

then we finished off by doing some watering and weeding.

A special thank you to Georgia, the daughter of Kate who helps out, for helping us with digging up the bed for the potatoes.

the new shed!

A shed at last!!

On Friday 19 March, the gardening club were very excited to find that we not only have a brand new shed, but everyone also has

a pair of gardening shoes to do their work in!

we also planted some tomatoes and lettuce in pots so we can have our first spring fruit and veg!

we also have to say a sad goodbye to a good friend and valued member of the club, Gabriella(pictured and far left) who has gone to live in Bournemouth. We let her take her gardening shoes with her so that she get everyone there gardening too.

the new pond!

on Saturday 13 march, we were lucky enough to have a group of helpful parents come in and clean and re-paint the benches and wooden outdoor equipment, they were also kind enough to offer us a new pond!

here is my little brother helping with some digging.

and here is one of the helpers with the new pond.

filling it up...

...and finished!!!

thank you to all the parents and volunteers that helped in the construction of our new pond!

sheds and potatoes.

Firstly, I would like to welcome Kate into the secret gardening club as a new adult helper; here she is with some of the others.

On Friday we went out to the garden, but it was too cold and windy so we went indoors to the school hall where we discussed sheds.

Capital Growth has granted The Secret Gardening Club £850 to spend on equipment, and we decided that the first thing we would buy would be a shed for all our tools, and to shelter in when it's raining. This is the shed we eventually chose. We will get the school's Dad's Army to erect it for us in a couple of weeks time.

A shed is not all we wanted though, we had a whole list!

After that, we had a look at some chitting potatoes that we had got from the Potato Council, we put them in an egg box and chose a member to take them home until they are ready to be planted.

Next we had a look at some seeds that we won by entering a competition run by Capital Growth. We were the first school to enter so we got five packets of seeds! I'm most looking forward to eating the tomatoes or lettuce but I'm not too sure about the beetroot or the cauliflower!

Finally we had a top secret meeting about the competition. We have to plant our seeds into old things that we find. We can't tell you what our plan is because it's top secret and some other school might read this!