Hello, 

Wow! We’ve had a busy couple of weeks in the gardens here at Elmhurst.

We have got the paper and card recycling off the ground. Our first bricks are still drying. I suspect they could take some time before they are burnable! We are composting some of the paper in with our green waste, which we also collect each day from uncooked fruit and veg waste, this will be used on our gardens. 

We had a bit of a battle with a seagull raiding one of the compost bins that didn’t have a door so I wove one out of willow, but it pulled that out of the way too. I think we may have won the battle as we have now swapped a fitted door to it from the other bin and used our willow door for that bin, so far it hasn’t worked this out. 

We have been continuing to set up new beds for vegetable growing, moving soil and compost and leaves, all now mulched with cardboard and tyres to stop it blowing away.

We saw lots of life in the soil. There are bulbs starting to pop up around the school and I can’t wait to see some bright colour back in the gardens. 

We’ve been learning to spin sheep’s wool and had a go on drop spindles. I made the whorls out of clay previously and the children chose sticks today which we had to whittle to fit them.

We have been making bird baths out of clay and they are almost dry enough for firing at the end of the week, fingers crossed they don’t crack in the kiln.

We’ve read The Tin Forest and The Song of Celestine as well as the ongoing reading of Tike Tyler. The children are getting to know the words of our songs Inch by Inch, The Green Grass Grows all Around, Trees Grow Tall and I like the Flowers. We are hoping Mr Lawrence will join us on his ukelelee once he’s learned the chords.

I look forward to sharing more news with you soon.

Karen Chard