Gairdín na Scoile
Téarma a hAon 2011/12
Our school garden is at its resting period at present. When we returned to school in September we cleared the plots of all the weeds that had grown over the holidays. Then we planted some Phacelia and Rye. These plants act as a ground cover over the winter to protect the soil and in spring they are dug back into the soil and so, they act as a green manure. Garlic will be the first crop planted in the new year. This crop is best planted when the weather is cold—unlike other crops. In fact, the advice for garlic is that it is planted around the shortest day of the year and harvested around the longest day of the year! (Mr. Fleming)
Téarma a Trí 2010/11
Despite some unsuitable weather our school vegetable garden has done well. Some rhubarb has been harvested earlier in June and on the last week we harvested potatoes, garlic, onions, shallots, cabbage and broad beans. We will sell these at our mini ‘Farmers’ Market’ at the school gate on Wednesday 29th June! The money collected will be used to finance our school vegetable plot for next year. (Mr. Fleming)
An tEarrach 2011
We have been busy during the spring with our vegetable patch. Garlic was planted in January and is now well established. Shallots, onions and red onions were planted in March and are now over the ground. Potatoes and broad beans were also planted in March and these have also begun to show. These are kept under plastic for frost protection. Also, our rhubarb has come on strongly during Spring. Some lettuce has been started indoors in trays and has just been transplanted outside. We look forward to a productive season and harvesting in June. (Mr. Fleming’s Rang a Ceathair)
Winter 2010/11
In September we cleaned up our school vegetable plot by removing all the weeds that had covered it during the Summer holidays. We then planted some Phacelia and some Ryegrass. This is known as a green manure and it serves many purposes—it covers the ground and stops other weeds from growing, it stops nutrients from washing out of the soil with heavy rain and when dug back into the soil in Spring it provides a compost to the soil. Our plot is now dormant over the Winter but in January we hope to plant some garlic bulbs. (Mr. Fleming)Summer 2010
‘Our school vegetable garden has been in full bloom throughout May and June, with most vegetables having been set in March/April. A new venture this year was the use of plastic coverings to allow us to plant earlier and give more heat and shelter to the crops so they would be ready to harvest in June. In May we had to do some watering and weeding. The fruits of our labour were evident in the end of June when we harvested rhubarb, lettuce, onions, shallots, garlic, potatoes, broad beans, white turnips and a little broccoli. We even had our own ‘Farmer’s Market’ at the school gate where we sold our produce!’ (Mr. Fleming)
Our Indoor Garden! Summer 2010
Rang a Cúig (Mr. O’Loingsigh) grew peas and tomatoes in the sunny South/East facing classroom! The peas germinated really quickly in March and produced pods in May. The tomatoes were propagated from seed in February. In April they were transplanted to large pots when they were 24cm high. They grew spectacularly well, 1cm per day at first, accelerating to 5cm per day by May. By early June they measured 2m35cm and had lots of flowers and fruit. There are plenty of large green tomatoes just starting to ripen on the plants now.
(Rang Mr. Fleming) In our school garden plot we planted some garlic in December but only a few remain because the birds picked them out of the ground! The ground cover crop of phacelia and rye was killed by the severe winter frosts and so there was very little digging in of this. In early March the plots were dug and we planted early potatoes (Home Guards & British Queens), onion sets, shallots and some broad beans. The potatoes and beans are set under cover and it is hoped that this will prevent frost damage and promote their growth.
Mr. Fleming and pupils weeding in May 2010
