Sunday 26 November 2017

The start of the finishing touches...

On Wednesday 22nd November, we had a lovely afternoon with the gardening club. As we are coming to the end of term, we are very close to finishing everything we can do before next year.

Natasha brought in all the holly bushes and ferns that had been ordered and the children enjoyed digging holes and planting these all around the area. Once they had been planted they went round with a watering can and watered them all as well. While some of the children were continuing with this job, others were putting the finishing touches to the bug hotel. It now looks fab so thank you to the gardening club!



When these jobs had been done, we prepped the log seating area ready for the bark to be laid down. Natasha laid the black sheeting and began digging up some soil to line the outskirts while Georgia and Lizzie created the wall. We then put the remaining bark we had left in this area, however it was not quite enough so that is a job to finish for next week!


We made benches!!

On Wednesday 15th November, we began with a lot of heavy lifting! It was a very cold morning but it was only a matter of time before the coats came off. Georgia and Lizzie began by taking the rest of the bags of bark and the pallets needed for the reflection benches from the car park to the meadow area and definitely worked up a sweat. Once we had got everything over, we began creating the remaining pathways using the soil we had previously dug up as last week, then laid the bark on the black sheeting.





Natasha started preparing the ground for the log seating area and whilst moving some soil she spotted a spiky visitor. A baby hedgehog was wandering among the leaves! We were really excited to see such a rare sight, however we were concerned that it should not be around in daylight but also that it was rather small. Not long after the discovery, Mrs Buncle and the gardening club children joined us and were able to see the hedgehog wander around the meadow site. We were very conscious not to get too close but managed to get some fantastic photographs to share!


Today the children did a great job filling the bug hotel with twigs, logs, pine cones, bamboo sticks, bricks and roof tiles to accommodate lots of different insects. They also planted some ferns which in time will spread to give the area a woodland feel.


Meanwhile Lizzie and Georgia worked on the pallet benches. We realised at first that the screws we had bought were much too long as they had come through the other side of the wood. Instead of continuing with these, Natasha went and bought some smaller ones that were just right. We drilled together the base of the bench, and began sawing wood to make the arm rests. We found this very hard work and it took quite a while! We then realised we were not too sure how we were going to attach the back rest onto the base of the bench, so we decided to reach out to Carl the carpenter who kindly said he would screw it on for us at a later date. 




That evening, Natasha called the Brent Lodge Wildlife Hospital to seek advice about the hedgehog. Their advice was to weigh it to check it's a suitable weight for hibernation which sadly we guessed was unlikely, meaning it would have to be rescued. More sad news followed, when we were told that the mother hedgehog had been found dead. Fortunately, the baby hedgehog was found by Mrs Buncle and taken to the Brent Lodge Wildlife Hospital to be looked after.

Sunday 12 November 2017

We have pathways!

 On Wednesday 11th November we did a lot of heavy lifting!

Firstly, Georgia and Natasha bought in some more bags of bark for the pathways, which were 100l bags so were super heavy! We started taking it over to the meadow area using the trailer so we didn't injure ourselves. Once we had got it over there, Lizzie and Natasha began filling the rest of the pathway and the reflection area with all the bark, while Georgia started to get rid of all the dreaded fallen leaves!







Once we had filled these areas with the bark, we decided to create one of our pathways in the woodland area behind the meadow. However, because there are trees in this area, the roots are too close for us to dig a layer of soil out, to then lay the black sheeting ready for the bark. We pondered on what to do for a while until Natasha suggested that we use the soil we have already previously dug up, to make a small raised wall as the edges of the pathway. We were a bit unsure at first as to whether it might look a bit strange, but we tried it nonetheless and it looked great! As Natasha was collecting the soil, Lizzie was making the walls either side, and Georgia was laying the bark as we went...team work!

At this point, we had run out of black sheeting so decided we would leave our last pathway until next week. We then thought it would be a good idea to go and look properly at all the pallets everyone has kindly donated, and decided which ones would be used for what. We picked 5 larger square ones for the bug hotel, and the rectangle ones for the reflection bench. Just like with the bags of bark, we found out the pallets were heavier than anticipated! There was a lot of laughter that came with trying to carry them though, and in the end we decided it would probably be easier to just layer them on top of one another on the trailer...so that's exactly what we did.

We took over the pallets for the bug hotel and placed them where we wanted it to go. We then placed our tiles on the top as a start, and decided we would bring as many items as we could find for next week so the gardening club could create all the insides exactly how they like!

Thursday 2 November 2017

Making Great Progress

On Wednesday 1st November, we had a super productive day!

When arriving at the site, Mr Wileman had begun digging the holes to put the fence poles in, and eventually after a good few hours, the fence was up and looking great! Once the fence was all in place, he came back later in the day to fill the holes with cement to make sure it was fully secure. Thanks again Mr Wileman, your help is invaluable!

As Lizzie was the first to arrive, she saw how many leaves had fallen from the trees over the past week so the first job of the day was to clear the leaves from the soil and pathway area, in order for us to be able to dig out the pathways and lay the black weed membrane sheeting. Once these were cleared the digging commenced. The first two pathways were completely dug out and the black sheeting was cut to size and placed down. It felt like we were finally getting somewhere! Georgia bought some nails so we nailed down the sheeting so the wind didn't blow it around before we put the bark chippings on top.


Now that the pathways were done, it was time to start digging out the reflection area. The soil that we dug up we placed back on the edges of the meadow ready to plant grass seeds later in the day. This way, no more soil was going to waste. Just like with the pathways, we then cut the black sheeting to size and nailed this down.

Once we had finished this, it was time for the gardening club to come outside and help us some more. We had some very hands on jobs to do, and everyone did fantastically! One job was to rake all the soil we had placed back on the meadow in order for the grass seeds to lay and grow evenly. This job required a lot of energy and the guys that helped Georgia and Natasha do this were amazing! Another job was to help Lizzie to start putting the bark chippings we already had onto one of the pathways...hopefully the rest will all be put down next week. Natasha also started getting some others to start breaking little twigs off the cut down branches to help us in the making of our bug hotel.

There were also a few helpers clearing up the millions of leaves that were under all the trees towards the back of the meadow, and after all the other jobs had been done, everyone begun collecting leaves as there was so many! The children really enjoyed using the wheelbarrow to collect and get rid of them and they were taking it in turns to do this which seemed to be a great idea! Thanks to everyone's help the area was almost completely cleared from the fallen leaves (ready for this week's leaves to fall again!!)

Finally, Lizzie measured each area of the meadow that we wanted to plant our grass seeds so that we had an approximation of how many square meters it covered. Once this was done, Natasha weighed out the correct amount of grass seeds and flower seeds for each section and mixed it with sand to help us see where we had scattered the seeds. Then Georgia and Natasha sprinkled the seeds all over the areas in vertical and horizontal directions (with the hope that it will grow nicely) and Lizzie helped to tread them into the ground to avoid birds eating them! At this stage we have only planted the grass seeds as Lizzie has made a start on planting bulbs in plant pots at home ready to put in the meadow at a later date...Hooray!