Park School Eco Garden Update

We've finished our stint at Park Junior School.  Working on their Eco Garden has been an exciting project and given our staff an opportunity to let their imaginations' go.  The pictures show the types of things that have been developed including stone crop, story telling circles and viewing areas.

Planting and sowing of fruit bushes, nectar rich plants and wildflowers over the coming months will complete the transformation of a dull corner of a field into something of an oasis for wildlife which will enrich the nature studies for the children.
                                                     

End of the willow season

The willow season has come to an end again this year.  It has been rather later than in previous years as the weather has been so cold.  However, a few sunny days and the willow has sprung into life, with catkins, leaves and roots very much in evidence.

Park Junior School Eco Garden

Tom busy building the 'bug-friendly' gabion wall.

  I am a governor at my son's Junior School and have taken on the development of an Eco Garden as an aid to the teaching of science and nature at the school.  The garden includes a large pond with dipping platform, a solar fountain feeding a damp wall and streamway, recycled stone walls, standing log piles, bug habitat, nectar rich planting and a hide viewing a bird feeding area.  I’ve posted a couple of photos of the on-going work and I’ll put up some more as the garden progresses.

The team laying out the butyl liner to form the pond

Ash Dieback Disease

There has been lots in the press about ash-dieback disease and it now seems certain that Britain will see a huge loss of the ash trees right across the country over the next few years.  Being first reported in Eastern Europe in the early 90s, it has now been reported in nearly every European country. 

What are the symptoms?

• Black/brown discolouration of the leaf base and midrib
• Small lens shaped lesions or black spots on the bark of stems and branches
• Trees with withered tops and shoots