The Young'ens planting Garlic, Shallots & Onions

Our raised beds have been planted up again, this time with the help of Dan, Holly, Katy & Rhiannon. As the title says, garlic, shallots and onions were planted and then over wintered with some fleece lining but not before they were spaced out using the 2 trowel method. The long trowel was used for spacing and the small trowel for depth of planting.

Woohoo the makings of a winter stew!!!

Woohoo the makings of a stew!!!

Exploration Sensation & Mastering the Arts

Penny's group recently revisited the garden for some exploration sessions. Below you'll see pictures of them planting succulents in cups, making a Christmas tree out of pines cones and really getting a feel of what their getting to grips with using the senses of touch and smell to appreciate their surroundings and the tasks at hand.

The final products such as the Christmas Tree made of pine cones can be seen at the Christmas Fayre at WESC on the 7th of December, pop along and have a ganders for yourself.

Kane also collected seeds from the wild flower meadows and sorted the green waste into composting to aid future growth of the land. 

There was also some fleecing by Cassie of the raised beds that currently have garlic, onions and shallots planted.

This will protect them over the winter and aid their growth when the frosty cold bite of winter rears it's head.

Sowing the Seeds of Rememberance

In the tradition of remembrance day we had many students come down to the WESC Gardens after their minute silence to come and sow the seeds of poppies into our wild flower meadow area 

Check out a few of the pictures below

The seeds used were taken from our wild flower meadow previously but will take time to grow over the winter and will make a beautiful display in early spring 

    

A belated blog but definitely worth a mention.
A group of WESC students completed their year long Entry Level 3 OCR in caring for plants this summer down in the WESC garden.

One of their first tasks was to be able to care for plant material. This involved checking the plant material by feeling the state and texture of the earth, soil and plant leaves. They learned how to stabilise newly potted plants and to use different techniques for watering.

 

The next stage was to be able to work safely minimising the risks to themselves and others.

They used different strategies to work safely such as working on raised beds, using table top trays and following instructions.

Some of the students broke the compost up with their hands, mixing with other mediums like perlite and horticultural grit before putting it in the pots and others used a very effective scooping method.

They used the appropriate protective gardening gloves and learned to work effectively and safely with small hand tools. 

The students also learned to clean tools after using them and storing them appropriately.

And the final task was to dispose of debris appropriately which they did by locating the main compost and putting any debris into a wheelbarrow ready for transferring there. 

They received their well deserved certificates

Never mind Culture Club - Check out Horticultre Club

As the weather cools, these guys were heating up with a music jam session in the horticulture area at WESC.

 

 

Martin took his music group out of the class room and beside the water feature for some inspiration!

The Bee Queen Suited & Booted!

Faye, our Monday volunteer who hopefully will be working a lot with the bees next year can be seen below in the bee suit. Sadly all the bees have flown the nest, as it were, so we'll be starting over again next spring trying to establish some hives. In the meantime Faye's cleaning up the hive and getting it prepped for the spring. She's an avid learner of beekeeping and has been cramming knowledge in preparation for the "BeeBeez"

 

 

 

 

Collecting the Fruits of Labour

With Halloween at the end of the month it was time to sort the Pumpkin patch out in the raised beds.

So the pumpkins were taken out to harden off and the raised beds were then cleared up and mulched for winter. Each class was then given their owns pumpkins to do with as they wished, some took seeds to bake and salt, other used them for cooking and some saved the seeds back to sow next year. And of course some were turned into jackal lanterns for Halloween!!!

  

 

There was also much collecting of fruit and vedge from the students who were reaping the rewards of their labour. See below!