Notre Dame High School Allotment

May is one of the busiest months of the year on the allotment. The soil is warming up, the greenhouse is full of jostling plants demanding to be put out and you can dig in your shirt sleeves rather than layers and a scarf. You can keep digging till 8.45 (last night anyway) and it all gets very exciting. Unfortunately it coincides with exam and coursework preparation and marking so we’re running around like mad things at the moment trying to keep up with it all.

The quality of the soil is slowly improving in the raised beds and we’ve noticed a lot more worms than last year so that’s a hopeful sign. We are still having to do a lot of digging and adding of manure and compost though. And who is it who keeps coming in and adding more stones to the beds when I swear last week we dug them all out? This year we managed to get a lot of manure from Hagg Hill allotment site. It’s surprising the joy you can experience surveying a mountain of free manure. Mr. Bonner got quite skittish.

The apple tree leans at quite a dramatic angle over the raised beds and rained down apples on the cabbages last year so we pruned it quite severely a few months ago (trees and allotments together do not usually go) It hasn’t taken offence at all and is blossoming madly. (hint – apples trees are happier when grass is kept away from their growing area.)

The beans and potatoes are very happy at the moment. The sunflowers and the beetroot aren’t.

Gardening club is Wednesday lunchtimes and pupils from St. Marie’s will be coming along to an after school gardening club in June for six weeks.

Thank you to everyone for all the pots you have contribute we have enough for this year now – unless you have some nice, fancy terracotta ones which you no longer have any use for.

Mrs. Dent

Ms. Snowdon