Spud shortage?

The second Ferncumbe Farmers Market, created a potato shortage when the potatoes grown by Reception sold out within 10 minutes of the market starting.  Their new potatoes, grown in bags, watered loved and inspected daily were a big hit with parents, and many customers left disappointed when the stall sold out so quickly.  Reception teacher Miss Fitzgerald said

“We’ll have to grow more next year!”

Other class stalls managed to keep gong longer, but the Yr2/3 garlic and onion plaits were very popular and sold quickly.

Year 1/2 were very proud of their chillis

It was a great event and worth all the effort put in by school and parents alike.

 

The producers who joined us for the market had a successful afternoon, all selling well, helped by pupil ‘apprentices’.

The ice creams a particular hit in the hot summer weather!

Over all the market was a great community event, with many visitors to the school and the children working hard to promote their produce.

With school breaking up for the summer any moment, this blog will take its summer break.  More in September when we plan and plant our next season of growing.  Look out for our next market in March 2014

In the mean time, Happy Gardening, hope your plants are thriving in this heat

A week is a long time in gardening..

A week ago I was writing about the cold, now the sun has come out and all seems so much better with the world and the garden in particular.  Suddenly Spring is here and it’s a busy time to get all the veg planted to be ready for the next Farmers Market in July.

In the poly tunnel the warmer weather has bought a new challenge, keeping the plants watered.  We have only one water butt in the garden,  fed from a very small piece of guttering, so it takes a long time to fill.  In the run up to the last  farmers market the children enthusiastically watered the salad crops and emptied the butt in the process. We have not had enough rain to refill it so we have a water shortage.  The only outside tap is the other side of the playground, we are waiting for an other tap to be installed closer to the garden so in the meantime it’s lots of trips with watering cans.

However with the warmer weather we can get on with planting more outside, where the veg can fend for itself, taking up moisture from the soil  and not relying on us all the time.

I am hoping that this week we can get salads planted out, and that will reduce the watering needed in the poly tunnel.

The strawberries in pots are coming on, I saw the first flower buds this morning, so maybe we will get a crop in a couple of months.

Last week the children from 4/5 class planted some tomatoes. 7 days on no sign yet, but that really is a bit soon for germination.  They have planted a selection of varieties including cherry tomatoes, a cascading variety suitable for hanging baskets and a striped tomato.  I’m looking forward to seeing that one fruit.

This week 2/3 will be planting.  They will be concentrating on root crops, carrots and beetroot in particular, so it is good that the weather has warmed the soil ready for them to plant.  However, before planting the root crops they are in an experiment with schools in France and Estonia to compare growing sunflowers, and today is planting day.

Happy gardening!

Oh to be in England….

….Now that summers here ( to mis quote Browning)

Sitting in my garden at the end of a beautiful summer’s day listening to the doves cooing, watching the house martins and swifts swoop overhead, makes me feel glad to be alive.  With the school broken up for the summer holidays Hatton Park WI have taken over the Ferncumbe community garden; keeping a watchful eye on the plants and weeding.  Today 3 of us; myself Marion and Jo spent a pleasant hour weeding the beds and deciding what to sow.  As this summer is so topsy-turvy weather wise we thought it was worth trying a final sowing of peas, runner beans, carrots and beetroot; hoping they will crop in September and October.  It’s an experiment, if they don’t fruit in time, before the frosts and shorter days at least the space has been growing what we wanted rather than weeds.  We hope that having the garden planted and productive by the time the school returns will inspire both pupils and teachers to keep gardening through the year.

Whilst at the school we inspected the Ferncumbe Olympic tyres, and they are perfect, all blooming just in time for the opening ceremony on Friday.  The spinach is doing so well we pinched out the plants that were getting ready to seed, so it’s a productive area too.   It is only in the last couple of days that the sun has encouraged the marigolds to flower, so I don’t think the children saw the Olympic display before they broke up. I don’t expect it will last until they return in September, so these photos will be the evidence of the Ferncumbe Olympic tribute.

 

 

Suddenly watering is becoming a priority, for existing plants in the ground I am resisting the urge to water; if the plant can cope so far I am hoping it has enough roots to find water deeper down in the soil.  Of course this does not apply to containers, so my watering priorities are containers first (and only).

Let’s hope this better weather lasts, as gardeners it would be ideal if it rained at night and was sunny in the day, but at the moment, more sun than rain is a welcome change.

Happy Gardening!