Growing Beans

Now the weather is warming up it's time to get sowing. Today we planted some broad bean seeds. 

We had some quite big, deep, pots so we put two bean seeds in each pot. First we filled the pot with compost and made two holes with our fingers. 

Then we put the bean seeds in the holes….

…and covered up the beans with the compost. We all had a go, and then made labels for the pots so we knew what we had planted in them. 

We watered the pots and put them outside in the sunshine to wait for them to grow. 

Earthing Up and Keeping Off

Our potato plants are growing nicely - they grow quickly when it's warm and wet. It was time to start earthing them up. 'Earthing up' just means mounding soil up around the plants' stalks. This increases the length of the underground stems that will bear potatoes. 

You can use a rake or a fork or a trowel to loosen the earth between the potato plants.  Then draw the soil up around the plants, leaving a trough at the top of the mound along the row of plants. This will make sure water drains down to the growing potatoes. 

We're really excited about the new roots and shoots in the garden.  The orchard is looking beautiful and many of the young trees have a lot of blossom on them. 

We were concerned to find a part of branch bearing some blossom had broken off.  

  

We're worried that some of the plants our raised beds in the playground could easily get damaged.  The playground is a busy place! We made some signs to warn people to be careful around the plants and not sit or stand on the raised beds.  Enjoy the garden - but treat it with respect! 

Grow Wild!

Back to gardening club after the Easter holidays and Spring has truly sprung. Time to get some seeds in the ground.

We are lucky to have been sent some 'Grow Wild' sowing kits including some wild flower seeds. Grow Wild is a project supported by the Big Lottery Fund and led by the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. They're on a mission to get the UK sowing and growing - they want community groups to plant the native British wild flower seeds to provide havens for birds bees and butterflies. It's also a great way of learning new skills, enjoying the garden and having fun together.

We chose a bed to plant our seeds in. It was very dry and hard so we gave it a good dig and a rake over and then scattered the seeds as instructed on the packet.

We carefully gave the seeds a little bit of water, using our hands to sprinkle the water over the ground. We don't want to drown the little seeds or wash them away!

We are looking forward to seeing what comes up and watching the birds, bees and butterflies enjoying the flowers.