Preparing for Christmas on the Field

Today we continued our preparations for Christmas on the Field, our school gala, which is only three weeks away. Last Wednesday we sowed loads and loads of seeds in punnets. Here’s what we got up to today:

We got creative, painting garden stones to sell. We had to be careful not to get paint on our uniforms because we were using permanent paint – water-based paint wouldn’t be much good on stones that are going to live outside in the garden. Once the paint is dry we’ll put a coat of sealant over the paint to give it extra protection.

We also harvested seeds from some of Ms Hunt’s sunflowers from last year. We put them in bags and labelled them to sell. It’s quite incredible to think that these little seeds can turn into plants as huge and glorious as the ones we grew last year (see one here).

Meanwhile our senior gardeners were busy keeping our garden areas ticking over. They used their muscles to deliver wheelbarrows full of aged horse manure to our orchard trees. They spread a layer of pea straw mulch over our garden beds which are drying out a lot in the spring winds. They shifted a raspberry plant and did lots of general tidying up.

Ben and Ryan, two of our garden leaders, used their initiative to help two junior students plant a punnet of seeds each. It was great to see their empathy as they mentored the younger ones, firstly noticing their interest and then following through, explaining what to do and helping when needed. Well done boys, for showing real Garden Leader-ship :)