The School Allotment Garden

George (my Dad) and I (Julie) are into our 3rd year of caring for the school garden.

We started by clearing the ginormous brambles that had taken hold along with dead and broken branches from the trees. It took around a year of digging, pulling, sawing, and chopping with many trips to the tip, cuts and bruises, before we finally cleared the length of the tree border and the bottom left hand side corner. 

Two afternoons a week, we worked through cold snowy weather, soggy rainy days and glorious sunny days. We have had plenty of company, robins, wrens, blackbirds, song thrush, woodpecker, rabbits, bees, wasps, ladybirds, butterflies. Flying over the garden have been herons, geese, ducks, a Lancaster bomber and a spitfire. 

Weeding was and still is a never ending task, it seems creeping buttercups can grow as fast as we take them out. No weed killer in this garden, fork, spade and trowels only. But as we compost everything, they do eventually serve the garden well.

Over the last three years, we have planted fruit trees, flower bulbs, sprinkled seeds, weeded some more!  Moved the Christmas tree out of its small pot from the bottom of the garden and replanted it. We have harvested, potatoes, peas, beans, onion, tomatoes, apples, gooseberries, and courgettes. We also found some fabulous hexagonal flags as we were digging and clearing, these now surround the apple tree which is an ongoing school project.

During our 2nd year, we repaired and repainted the children’s shed. Cleared and flagged part of the bottom area of the garden ready for a new shed and a greenhouse. More weeding. We planted more fruit trees more clearing, more trips to the tip. 

We are now in our 3rd year, during the spring, we cleared the wild area behind the garden which took nine weeks. More cuts, scratches, bruises and a tetanus shot due to a stubborn stuck bramble thorn. More trips to the tip. We made two large loggeries and George built two bug houses ready to be occupied by any creatures that wish to stay there. The compost bins have repaid us well, we have taken out 15 wheelbarrows of compost over the last few weeks, with more to come.

George has built two strawberry towers which are now full of strawberry plants. With plans for two more over the coming weeks. We use pallets for our wood when we can get them. But the wood for the legs on the strawberry towers were bought, I knitted some teddy bears, sold them and this gave us the funds for the wood. So far, potatoes, onions, peas, beetroot, garlic, snowball turnips and carrots have been planted, flower seeds have been sprinkled and the weeding continues. So, we are hoping for a colourful display over the summer months.