Councillor Billington has arranged for our garden project to receive another £2000 of funding. We will spend the money as follows

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Pond project
 
0.75mm butyl pond liner 8m x 7m
10ft x 12ft decking for jetty (for pond dipping)
25m x 1m picket fence with gate to securely enclose pond
Pond and marginal plants

(This project is subject to a risk assessment and approval by Mrs Paxton)
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Path re-surfacing
 
6 tonnes pea shingle 
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Plants and shrubs
 
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Educational equipment and fittings
& ...

As part of the ongoing ‘Green Thinking‘ partnership with Focus DIY, we have received two bird tables, feeders and bird food. We hope to attract a wide range of garden birds and to help them survive the winter.

Councillor Billington has arranged for the allotment project to be awarded £1000. We still have lots more products to come from Focus DIY, including a shed, fence and bird feeding products, so we have decided to spend the money on power tools and a gate.

We have ordered some professional quality garden power tools, the ones that the council use for parks so they should last us a lifetime.

We now have a full range of professional Stihl powertools

We are getting a powerful Stihl engine with attachments for strimming, brush cuttings, cultivating, pruning (mini chainsaw), long-reach hedgecutter and safety equipment. These should make maintaining the site a lot easier (and more fun!). We have also ordered a ...

Jo Hirst, Focus DIY's Environment Manager, joins Holly class for a bulb planting session

Focus DIY's bulb supplier kindly donated hundreds of bulbs. They brought daffoldils (full size and dwarf), tulips and bluebells. On Monday afternoon, they joined Mrs Clifford-Jones and Holly class for a planting session. The children worked really hard and planted well over 100 bulbs. [On later dates, hundreds more were planted. Come back in the spring to see the results].

We recruited local kids (actually they begged to help!) to build and paint some picnic benches. We have three picnic benches from Focus as well as two hardwood benches. The hardwood benches will be put on a decking platform. The benches were painted with green Focus Timbercare which should help them to last for years as well as making them look attractive.

In preparation for a bird feeding area at the top of the allotment by the tree, we have created a 6m long willow screen to provide a secluded area for the birds to feed. The willow screen was kindly provided by the manufacturer.

We now have some large wooden planters. The large one measures 2.4m x 1.2m and is made of pressure treated interlocked decking joists with a decking seat around the rim. Two smaller planters are made from log fence panels. One measures 3m x 1m and the smaller one 1m x 1m. We also have two half brewer's barrels and two herb/strawberry pots.

We have a dwarf buddliea bush and some herbs (lemon thyme, chives and parsley).

The man from the company that supplies Focus DIY's greenhouses arrived this morning at 8am to install the greenhouse. It is 8 feet by 6 feet with twin-wall polycarbonate glazing.

The first feature of the Focus DIY case study will be about composting and today we have taken delivery of a huge 330L plastic compost converter. As part of this feaure, we will also be making an open mesh composter. We also took delivery of 3500L of peat free compost (60 large bags) which will be used for the planting feature and met with Focus' bulb supplier who will be providing spring bulbs and educational material.