Blog posted by Dominic Murphy

Two weeks is a long time in the summer garden. Half term has been and gone, and I didn’t make it to gardening club the week before, so while I have been slacking the weeds have been busy. No question, then,  what we would be doing this week.

But weeding that was once a joy for many of the students (see previous blogs), has become a trickier exercise now. This is because the make-up of gardening club has been getting younger over the past month or so, and a group that once  represented all ages in the school, is now largely made up of year ones and year twos. The older children that could be relied on to spot the difference between beetroot and bindweed have been distracted by Sats tests and the school play. Perhaps some have been poached by other activities (I’m OK about this, I really am). It means the young ones that are left (and numbers seem to be growing by the week) need close supervision.

So we start off in a huddle (not all of us: one group is off looking for the worm they ‘rescued’ from the soil at last gardening club; another is watering the spuds) and I show them what needs to be done. This is a difficult bed we are working on because there are carrots, beetroot, onions, garlic and a couple of potatoes all growing together, so there’s potential for costly mistakes. Still, most of the children, seem to understand what needs to be done, and soon I’m off to help elsewhere.

More basil seeds are sown in pots and a few of us earth up the potatoes, gently mounding  soil over the young shoots. This helps to keep light off the tubers and stop them going green. The watering is going well, with one child guarding the hose and filling up watering cans so it doesn’t get out of hand.

And how’s the weeding? Back to the bed in question where the carrots have survived the tidy up, and a few potatoes have been ‘discovered’.

But what’s this? G standing in the middle of the bed with a trowel in her hand. Around her an area now free from weeds. And under her feet the remains of a trampled onion patch.