On 30th August Penny and Alan from Transition Turriefield visited to support the school to make the most of the polytunnel by growing crops during the winter months. This is a great project for two reasons: traditional growing results in many crops being ready when pupils are away from school during the holidays and it extends the growing season allowing us to use the poly tunnel even more effectively.
Soil samples were taken and the ph was tested. Ph is important for plants so that they can effectively take in nutrients from the earth, the best range is from 6-7. Ours was in that range and it was satisfying to see that soil from the section manure was added to this spring had a ‘better’ ph than the other raised bed, so the hard work is paying off!
We also looked at the structure of the soil by putting some in a jar with water and shaking it up, then leaving it to settle. You could see the layers of sand, silt, clay and organic matter. The soil in the poly tunnel is quite sandy, but has a reasonable texture.
Alan then showed us the wormery they use for processing kitchen waste. It uses tiger worms to process peelings and raw food. This kind of composting can also deal with cooked food, which isn’t put into a normal compost bin in case it encourages vermin. It was a very simple construction made of two agricultural feed buckets, so we might try that.
At the end of the session Alan helped the pupils to plant spicy salad mix seeds. It was important not to press the compost down too much and some found it a bit tricky to get just the right number of seeds in the row, but as you can see, in just one week everyones had grown! Next stage is to plant them, and the module grown seedlings which Alan and Penny provided, into the raised beds – there may be some weeding to do first!
We would like to thank Alan and Penny for the time they have spent both with the community and the school. We have learned a lot from them and appreciate the enthusiasm they bring.
Eyvor Irvine
