The outdoors equivalent of housework

Now that the weather has taken a turn for the colder – and wetter - nothing much is growing at this time of year – other than the odd plant that escaped the harvest.  Like these potatoes, for example.

So November in the garden largely means the outdoors equivalent of housework.  There are leaves to be raked…..

and gathered up.

Herbs such as mint need to have their straggly stems cut back.

There are weeds to be pulled up.

All of which can be tossed into buckets…..

and dumped on the compost heap.  There may also be the odd plant that needs to be put back into the ground.  Oops!

 

Soil that has been rained on (and goodness, how it has rained these past few days!) is likely to become compacted, or squashed, if it is trodden on too much.  Boards placed on top…..

help to spread the load and stop that happening.

Something else that helps keep the soil aerated is this wonderful stuff.

From seed to ground cover in two or three weeks.  It can either merely be pulled out and used on the compost heap…..

or can be dug back into the soil so that it rots – and passes on all its goodness directly.

Either way, we are guaranteed crumbly weed-free, tidy soil.

How the weather confuses us all…..

Bitingly cold wind a week or so ago was soon replaced by the most gloriously clear and sunny weather, giving warm and balmy days. Finally, the perfect autumn.

Unless you are a daffodil bulb that is.  You see, the cold snap tricked the bulbs into thinking it was already winter (actually, I have to admit to being tricked too!)  And then when (thankfully) it got all warm and lovely again, those poor confused daffs thought that winter (blessedly brief) was over and spring had come.

And we know what bulbs do in springtime, don’t we.  They send down wiggly roots…..

and push out new green shoots.  Like these.

Well, that won’t do, will it?  What will those tender green shoots do when the real winter…..

hits us?

So we carefully replanted them, using good healthy soil…..

in sturdy orange boxes…..

and secreted them away to a cool, dark, wintery place (the store room beneath the school) where hopefully they will stay safe until spring really comes.

Bulbs and boots – and a surprise in store

Whatever do you do with Wellington boots once you have outgrown them?  Unless you have a younger sister or brother, that is.

We had earlier been given a rather puzzling note requesting that our worn-out and too-small ‘wellies’ and the like should be brought to school.  What for, we would find out in due course.

On Thursday, to be precise. When we went outside for our weekly session in the garden, we discovered a heap of apparently perfectly sound boots.  On closer inspection, however, they turned out to have had holes mysteriously drilled into the soles.

 

How very odd!  What’s more, there were also lots (and lots) of different spring bulbs in various packets and buckets.

Curiouser and curiouser.

It turned out that we would be planting the bulbs in the boots!  All that was needed was a scoop or two of the perfect mix of soil…..

and a bulb - or two, or three (the correct way up!)…..

tucked down inside.

A further sprinkling of soil on the top…..

patted firmly down.  Finally, carefully stand your bulb-stuffed ‘wellie’ in place on the garden…..

where they will wait, lined up on their long walk towards spring…..

and hopefully the surprise of a beautiful show of spring colour.

And what about those holes drilled in the bottoms?  We know what they are for.  Do you?

Composting

We gathered under the trees for this week’s session in the garden.  Found a bit of clean dirt on which to sit – and looked upwards.  Up towards the canopy of leaves.

What did we notice about the leaves?  That leaves which had been green during the long summer months, were beginning to change colour.

Looked down to where we were sitting.  What did we notice there?

Brown, crisp, dry, curled leaves.  Dead leaves, as Can noted.

What, we wondered, made those leaves turn brown and fall from the tree?  Well, take a green leaf and tug at it.

You can tug quite hard, but the tree doesn’t let it go.  But just watch for a moment; and you will see brown ones floating and twisting and curling down to the ground.

 

In the summer, the tree ‘sucks’ up moisture from the soil; it travels through the roots…..

up the trunk…..

and all the way along the branches to the leaves.  But as the weather gets colder, the tree needs to conserve its moisture so that it doesn’t die.  So it closes the little ‘trap-doors’ to the leaves, thus turning off the water supply and allowing them to shrivel up and fall off.

Now think back to what we learned last week about the ‘ingredients’ of soil.  Water, air, minerals and organic matter.  Organic matter, remember, is things that were once living.  Things like dead leaves…..

We want to use some of this organic matter to improve our soil.  We are going to have a go at composting.

Just like last week, we will work in ‘teams’…..

with each team responsible for raking up…..

and gathering the leaves…..

before putting them into buckets and carrying them…..

over to our ever-growing pile…..

and emptying them onto the top.

 

Next stop, rich dark well-rotted compost?

Soil Sample

Take a look at this.

A handful of soil.  But what exactly is soil?  Well, soil contains these things:

  water

   air

organic matter

(that means things that were once living, like dead leaves)

minerals

(minerals are things like stone or sand, that come from the ground)

But not all soil is the same; not all soil contains the same amount of water or air, or the same amount or kind of organic matter or minerals.

And some soil is better for growing things than other soil.

Which brings me to today’s ‘mission’.  We would work in a ‘team’ to see if we could find samples of at least 4 different types of soil in and around the garden.

• We should be able to find sandy soil, that is a bit like the sand in our sandpit; dry and grainy and pale in colour.
• We should be able to find dark sticky clay.
• We should be able to find stony soil.
• We should be able to find rich, dark, sweet-smelling, crumbly, ‘perfect-for-growing-plants’ soil.

With trowels…..

 

and containers at the ready, off we set.  Pretty soon we discovered dry, grainy, pale sandy soil under the trees…..

and stony soil nearby.

There was dark sticky clay…..

at the edges of the flowerbeds; and underneath the pretty flowers…..

  

and the juicy peppers…..

we found find rich, dark, sweet-smelling, crumbly, ‘perfect-for-growing-plants’ soil.

At least 4 different types of soil in all.

 

I wonder: Can you tell which is which?

In the garden – in September

Toes sensibly buried in shiny boots…..

 

we clomped out into the Thursday afternoon sun, ready and willing to do our bit in the now well-established school garden.

September in the garden means a lot of tidying up.  It means pulling up the tangled plants that have died and harvesting the fruits of others.

It means collecting certain seeds for planting next year and saving others for the birds.

It means squatting down…..

and getting our hands mucky as we dig over the compacted soil to loosen it…..

and taking away the larger stones – by the heavy bucket-load.

It means raking the remaining soil to a fine, friable tilth in preparation for the next batch of seeds.

It means taking the time to enjoy a bit of colour…..

as well as getting to know one or two…..

or three or four…..

of the more interesting residents!