School Gardening Club

[Chuckles]

How awful 4P the poor woman, and the poor man come to that so very young Sorry to hear you've been poorly too get well soooooon.

It sounds as though you are in control with your plans and as enthusiastic as ever, your energy amazes me and you are an inspiration. Those children are very lucky to have someone like you to show them the way of mother nature. I'm sure once the 7/8 yr olds get started they'll be fine. Hope the school realise how lucky they are.

Keep smiling, you'll get there and it will be fantastic

[4pygmies]

Thanks Aprilaydee but sadly I don't have B&Q very close to me....the nearest is Wisbech but I don't go there often - there be Orcs there....... ;D

[MamIDdau]

lol 4P. Worth a try though? Even contacting local nurseries or other DIY stores that might sell plants and ask them if they could donate anything.

We donate paint etc to local schools as well as anything else that would just be written off. Otherwise it gets chucked in the skip and that's not good for the environment is it?

[Chuckles]

How's progress at the school 4P

[andy]

Any progress 4P ?

I'm off in a couple of hours to meet a few governors, teachers and parents with a school garden project in mind. There's a bit of wasteland out the back of the school which is mainly thick chalk, flint, builders rubble and god knows what from when the school had an extension built last year.

It's also very overgrown and i'd like to get in there with a load of roundup if i'm allowed and if the project is to proceed without the need of a chiropracter !!!

My suggestion is for a sensory garden....different areas which are devoted to individual senses. There is some cash available and i can really get as many plants as needed plus we have the European woodchip mountain at work too.

There's chance for a pond and bog garden too but everything will be based on the amount of help we can get and sponsorship from local companies.

There will be no time scale and everything will evolve or improve as we go along.

What a fantastically exciting project.

[oldmoleskins]

Good on yer Andy... hope you get the encouragement you seek.

OM.

[4pygmies]

Brilliant Andy! Good luck but don't expect to have it done quickly....progress is bumpy at the best of times with a project like that I've found.
Things are moving along with my school now. Spent yesterday morning planting wild flower plugs in the wildlife area and along the banks opposite the two youngest classes. The children had a fine time and we spent a little time hanging over the dipping ponds too. Despite the fact that they are only 6" deep in water and I just shoved all the plants in when they arrived, they are teeming with life already! I was ordered to rescue 2 ladybirds and a wood louse. Little children are MAGICAL!
I also had two mothers out there in the boiling hot sunshine yesterday demolishing the shrubs where the orchard is going - fortunately it looks as if the ground is not as bad as I was expecting, so I shall keep them at it until they've all gone!
And I had a rootle around where the new class extension was built last year and discovered a very handy pile of air bricks, slabs and half cut timbers which are PERFECT for my ramp into one of the dipping ponds, so I tackled that. It was playtime when I was making it and I collected a very interested crowd of the older kids all wondering what I was messing about doing. It was then I found out that most of the older kids don't know about the grant money, don't know about the gardening club, and didn't even realise we'd built the dipping ponds....."I wondered what they were, Miss".....
GRRRR! How the hell can I get the children involved when even the b***y teachers can't be bothered to get interested? £5.000 is a massive amount of money to get for a school like ours and half the staff haven't even discussed it with their students. Well, REALLY!
So I had a really good moan to one of the classroom assistants about the need for the teachers to show a bit of interest and hopefully she'll spread the message round. She's a good girl, she is!
Anyway, now we're about doing stuff I hope more of the kids will get drawn in. Gardening Club has been postponed while we get all the necessary shifting and revamping done but at least we'll have a really good area ready for next year now (I hope).
Thanks for your interest.
(Every school should have a gardening club..................but it's up the the parents to organise it...)

[Chuckles]

4P you are so wonderfully motivated with this project, it's such a shame the teachers haven't got the same motivation. It doesn't take much to spread the word to the whole school, annoucemnets at assembley etc and the children then spread the word to parents. It may be that there are some parents who would be willing to help if they only knew about it

So Andy, your doing your bit too to encourage children to take an interest in gardening etc too Hope yours goes well and you will keep us posted.

Keep up the good work

[Deleted]

Congratulations and well done to your projects and may the hard work be too enjoyable for you to worry about!
I quite agree that teachers sometimes dont have the will to spread these sort of ideas around. I am amazed when my sons friends come into our garden and they see whats there and the amount of bugs that they can find and they have no idea. One last night asked what the big black thing was and thought it was full of water. James quite happily told him what a compost bin was all about and what went in it. It was a shame his pal was still in his school uniform as then I would have let him help plant the plants and help cut the grass. He lives in a flat with no garden.
James school will be moving soon to a new PPP built school (next January hopefully, only 6 months behind). I was looking at the plans for the new school and it looks like the new school will be having various wildlife and environmental gardens incorporated into the plans, but we have no idea if the school and pupils will have any hands on maintenance of these sites or will have any input as to what will be going into it. As its a PPP project there is a management company who will be responsible for the site.
This is the link to the page with all the site plans and everything which will maybe give you some more ideas! (hope this doesn't contravene any copyright laws etc, but they are in the public domain, there is a bit though but just looking should be alright)
idoxwam.dundeecity.gov.uk/WAM133/findCaseFile.do?apptype=DC&appNumber=05/00969/FUL
(Its in the landscape drawing section (20/8/2006 and then i think its the 4th and 5th thumbnail along). The files are huge so take a while to download and they are in PDF form.
All in all it looks like the school will have a much better feel to it, but as to hands on for the kids I don't know, thanks be to have an allotment when James can grow his own stuff and learn from me - and sometimes me from him I hope!
Julia

maybe try this link too, I think its direct to the page
idoxwam.dundeecity.gov.uk/WAM133/doc/61876-Page-4.pdf?extension=.pdf&page=4&id=61876&contentType=application/pdf&location=VOLUME1

[4pygmies]

Thought I'd let anyone interested know about the latest disaster to hit my great scheme!! Some moronic contracted Groundsmen came in unannounced and razed the entire wild garden to the ground - destroyed virtually all the plug plants the infants had planted, all the foxgloves, OxEye daisies, Cornflowers, Poppies etc etc that were in full flower AND the shrubs I'd planted to protect the pond ramp...about £200 worth of plants and a whole years work gone! I shuttle between total despair and murderous rage. The area is fenced off, gated and barred....even the youngest babies at school know that means No Entrance without permission.......words fail me....(and that's rare)...





This is what it looked like two days before....



The good news is that the newly planted orchard is being well watered........

[Chuckles]

OMG 4P you must be beside yourself after all the hard work you have done, I could for you and the poor kids too.

I hope the school can at least make a claim against the contracters so as it can be put right at some point. It's awful 4P really awful.

try and keep postitive won't you I don't know what else to say

[4pygmies]

I know Chuckles - never give up, never surrender. But still......... ! We are "discussing" it with the contractors at the moment - I didn't see him when he visited - I think the Head was scared I'd be very rude.........

Sorry, Julzman, I thought I'd replied to your post - didn't mean to be rude - it looks like a wonderful plan for the new school - lucky kids! I really hope there is a built in agreement for the school to do some gardening - I feel very strongly that it should be a inherent part in all school curriculums. If it's all groundsmen coming on site - well, see above! Ban them.......ban them all...........

[andy]

Unbelievable ....unfortunatly, parks and gardens staff....including contractors are mostly unskilled labourers these days. As long as they can cut grass (and wild flower gardens )...no one cares.

We have just over 100 staff on Brighton and Hove city parks and i would say that there is only around 10% who know anything about horticulture. There are obviously skilled groundsmen as well but i'm afraid it's a dying breed.

My school project hasn't taken off yet ....the bloke who is "organising" it (note inverted commas !!!) doesn't seem to want to put any plan together. All he's interested in is spending the £600 we have on hiring a toy (mini-digger) and getting a pond in. He's not bothered how the rest of the garden will fit in with the pond...he just wants the pond in !!!

We've got gardening club this wednesday so i'm going to put my "advice" over to him quite strongly

[oldmoleskins]

4P that must be really dispiriting for you - and a tribute to you that you can be so pragmatic...

Pursue the contractors, and if you don't get generous compensation in the form of cash/plants/help in reinstatement (I know you're not exactly low on funding, but I mean beyond the 200 quid mark) ask for their mission statement, insurance details, certification for machinery operation, terms of ref for their contract the names of the operators that were on site to cross-ref with the certs - these are all things that send a chill through the heart of contractors, cos they often don't have them, particularly if they employ casuals on a cash basis.
If they ask why, say it's because you don't believe they have the competance to be working around kids and you want to check, not just as guardian of your project, but as a concerned parent - and a customer and if they don't want to deal with you, perhaps you'll get the info from the County Council instead...

The buggers. It really is beyond belief...

OM.

[Juliet]

Aw 4Pygmies, that is awful - I would be gutted.

Do what OM says - better still, get the school to officially do what OM says - & make sure they pay. It won't really compensate for what they've destroyed, but at the very least it may stop them doing anything like that again - to you, or to anyone else.

[Deleted]

4P

Sorry to hear about the disaster at the Wild Flower garden, I am quite speechless (although I could probably manage one or two expletives if I met the mindless groundsman )

I do hope you get some suitable recompense from the contractors.

[Chuckles]

I think what OM has said is spot on 4P

[Chuckles]

Did you manage to get the ball rolling 4P and get anything sorted

[4pygmies]

Nope, it's as I feared - they are too nice at that school. The contractor sweet talked our Head and even suggested he mow a path "through" the garden regularly........over my dead body! He has taken the list of wild flowers he destroyed though. I don't know if he'll replace them or not. I've just got to carry on and start all over again by the looks of it. To be honest, I'm not sure if I want too............my own garden is a wreck because of the time I've spent down there over the last year. If no one's really bothered about doing it properly at school I may just put the greenhouse up after the summer holiday and just do Gardening Club. It's such a disappointment for me - but I'm not going to slog my guts out just to be ignored by all and sundry any more. I can still green up the grounds with my gardening kids but we just won't be contributing to the curriculum. You can't make teachers get outside and get involved with their students if they're not interested can you? I am quite disillusioned at the moment. I soo wanted to make a difference there. Over 150 kids on the roll, so potentially 300 parents who could do something , and about 10 staff - but I'm afraid it's only, at the most 8 mothers and 2 teachers who are interested at all. It's a poor look out for our children really isn't it?
I shall try and get motivated again in September!

[oldmoleskins]

Sounds like the local paper and BBC 'Look East' then to me, 4P.

Obviously you're too nice to consider that route.

Want an anonymous tip off?

OM

[Deleted]

4pygmies said:

Nope, it's as I feared - they are too nice at that school. The contractor sweet talked our Head and even suggested he mow a path "through" the garden regularly........over my dead body! He has taken the list of wild flowers he destroyed though. I don't know if he'll replace them or not. I've just got to carry on and start all over again by the looks of it. To be honest, I'm not sure if I want too............my own garden is a wreck because of the time I've spent down there over the last year. If no one's really bothered about doing it properly at school I may just put the greenhouse up after the summer holiday and just do Gardening Club. It's such a disappointment for me - but I'm not going to slog my guts out just to be ignored by all and sundry any more. I can still green up the grounds with my gardening kids but we just won't be contributing to the curriculum. You can't make teachers get outside and get involved with their students if they're not interested can you? I am quite disillusioned at the moment. I soo wanted to make a difference there. Over 150 kids on the roll, so potentially 300 parents who could do something , and about 10 staff - but I'm afraid it's only, at the most 8 mothers and 2 teachers who are interested at all. It's a poor look out for our children really isn't it?
I shall try and get motivated again in September!

4P

I'm astounded that the head has allowed himself to be sweet talked by the contractor - spineless fool

I'm also saddened to hear that you have to 'start all over again' , I'm assuming that this school gardening club is on a voluntary basis....so I can understand how disheartened with the project you are when you aren't getting any support.....especially if you feel that you are the only one wanting to make a difference and improve things at the school, and you've put your own garden on hold to do so.

Do you have children attending this school? If you don't, I'm sure that would make it easier to 'walk away' from it and concentrate your gardening efforts where they would be more appreciated.

I think OM's post about the local paper and news may be a useful solution to perhaps getting a nursery to 'donate' a few plants to help rebuild what has been destroyed.

Good Luck with whichever route you go down
GH

[isabella]

I feel so sad after reading your posts 4p
Good Luck in whatever you decide to do

Love Pam x

[4pygmies]

greety said:

Did you manage to get the ball rolling 4P and get anything sorted

Very tempting OM! I think better not though. I do have a daughter at school so I'd better not rock the boat too much!
I sound really depressed in that last post don't I? I'm OK really. I shall carry on next term. Now I've had a really productive weekend in my garden I don't feel quite so pressured by it all. Belonging to gardening mb's it's easy to feel that everyone loves gardening but sadly that's not the case. I haven't come across anyone at school who is as obsessive as I am. Very few of them even seem to grow much. Maybe because they have young kids - I know it's difficult in those years.
It's just a temporary lull in my enthusiasm I'm sure. When the greenhouse is up I shall be reborn!

[4pygmies]

The FIGHTBACK begins.....stupid groundsman is back and strimming within a few feet of the kids playing! Unbelievable! So I steamed into the school and complained (loudly) sending the Headmistress out there with red rage in her eyes.....he really is an incompetent moron, he's covered head to foot in protective clothing but the kids aren't!!!! - I shall write my letter now OM!

[Chuckles]

Thats the spirit 4P I knew you wouldn't give up ;D

GO GET UM GIRL AND AGAIN ONE MORE FOR LUCK

[4pygmies]

I just sent a Mrs Grumpy email to somebody in charge of grounds maintenance at County Hall Education Dept. I did enjoy writing it! Can't wait to get a response.....

[jean]

Glad to hear that you are not giving up 4P, have you thought about asking some of the childrens grandparents and their grandparents friends, they probally have more time for gardening and may have more time on their hands. Perhaps the Head might add something in the next schools news letter to encourage more volunteers. As for not contributing to the curriculum, what a load of b******s, there is so much that the teachers could use if they put their minds to it and got more involved: Maybe a chat to the head to find out what next terms topics are and how the garden could be involved may help. Best of luck

[Juliet]

Well done, 4P - if that doesn't work I think the local paper is another good idea of OM's.

Btw, did you see this Hampton Court show garden? - www.rhs.org.uk/hamptoncourt/2007/exhibitors/showgardens/des.asp - lots of ideas about involving the garden with the curriculum - I thought it was brilliant - so glad it won the Tudor Rose (best in show) award.

[4pygmies]

It's OK! I've just had a long conversation with the man in charge of the thick pillocks. He has arranged for the plug plants to be replaced, he's apologised profusely for the groundsman (said he's not very bright and has now been told that he is not going to schools anymore) and has arranged to meet me in September at school to walk round with me and work out a programme that will help us rather than hinder us. He was very interested in my plans and says his department might be able to help as well with stuff like leaf bins. I call that a good result!

I shall go to a meeting of the village gardening club in the Autumn I think and ask for help. Good idea, Jlottie about grandparents. I think it's time for another newsletter.
I didn't see any of the Hampton Court coverage , Juliet. How annoying to miss something so relevant! I shall have a good look at the link and see if I can get any ideas.
I feel sooo much more positive now.

[oldmoleskins]

Well done 4P for hanging in there, and for the result - persistence paid off then...

OM.