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!

Proper Preperation For Marvelous Mosiac

Just a quick blog to show Katy prepping a bench so that she can do a marvellous mosaic on the table after Positive pathways came in to give it all a good paint job....

 

 

Just to leave you hanging....

To be Continued.....

Wild Flower Power!!!

October also saw Megan and Suzy Jo collecting seed form the wild flower meadow, using the large garden sieve to save the seed so that it can be stored for next year so that the wild flower meadow can be sown once winter has past.

Check out some of the pictures below!

 

 

Putting some Order to the Herbaceous Border

During October more work has been carried out on the herbaceous border with various students getting involved and moving to improve the border before it starts getting chilly.

 

Here you can see Dan & Holly planting Nepeta on the edge of the border and collecting bark chipping, which they sieved to mulch the area.

 

And this is Zoe who was planting Knautia - to do this she dug a hole or plant pocket, combined compost and top soil, loosened the roots as the plants were a little pot bound and then planted Knautia, filling back in the holes and spaced them out using her trowel, which was about 30cm in size.