Tuesday 29th April

Today we had lots planned. We had decided to finish our fruit cage, put the new door on our poly tunnel, do some planting…… but then we had a phone call. Would you like some bark for your fire pit? Of course, the answer was yes, please! The children weeded some of their vegetable beds whilst we awaited our delivery. Very soon, the driver arrived and we stood patiently as he drove the truck into position. The very kind man asked if one of the children would like to operate the tipper and the answer was a definite yes!

The mountain of bark (child for scale)

We could not believe the size of the mount of bark which we had to move. It was all hands on deck and with our usual motto of team work makes the dream work, we had the whole load into the allotment so watch this space as next week you might just get the chance to see our finished fire pit!

Thursday 24th April

Today’s sessions started with the children looking at our pond. We are very excited about the huge number of tadpoles we have but today they were difficult to spot so we engaged in a spot of pond dipping. The children were able to observe the tadpoles close up and we are looking forward to watching them change over time. We then discussed the life cycle of a tadpole and the children were quick to point out that we start with frogspawn then tadpoles before we have froglets and eventually fully grown frogs before the cycle starts all over again!

 We then took a seat in our fire pit where we discussed the jobs of the day. These were planting potatoes and onions, finishing our fruit cage netting, repairing our polytunnel and putting on the new cover. There was a lot of jobs but we were all feeling very positive that we could get them finished.

 The children began weeding the beds before planting their potatoes and onions. We discussed what we would have to do once the plants appear. The children thought it was rather strange that we would build up the soil around them. One of our grownups had the tricky job of trying to finish the fruit cage. We thought about what sort of animals may get in and nibble our vegetables if we don’t get it finished. We thought about butterflies, rabbits and apparently deer!

 Another grownup was working on repairing our polytunnel. One of the children were keen to help and cleaned and tidied all the pots and seeds before placing the new cover on. Wow, what a difference it makes! We can’t wait to get planting now!

Wednesday 16th April

We arrived at the allotment today and it was wet and rainy but that did not stop us! We looked closely at the pond to see if the tadpoles had grown. The children pointed them out as they were everywhere and looked much bigger than last week. The plants are beginning to flourish and we could see movement in the pond. We wonder what we might see next week!

We are excited to start planting on the allotment, but before we can do that we need to prepare our vegetable beds. We popped on our gardening gloves and began pulling the weeds out (there are lots of them) but we made a very good start and have two beds ready to plants our potatoes and onions in next week.

We have also worked hard to prepare our new growing space this week and managed to cover the cage with fresh new netting. We were very proud of our hard work and thrilled to see the allotment taking shape for the growing season.

Thursday 10th April

This morning we started our day by taking a close look in our pond as we wondered if anything had changed? As we looked down, we noticed that we had hundreds and hundreds of tadpoles and they were much bigger than last week. A discussion then ensued about the life cycle of a frog.

After checking out our pond we got straight to work completing our fire pit. We rolled out the membrane, cut it to size and the children took it in turn to hammer the pegs into the ground. Once the membrane was secure, we transported our fire bricks into the middle. We thought about what shape it should be and chose a circle shape. We started to place the stones into a circular shape and before we knew it our fire pit was complete. We moved our benches and our tree stumps and arranged them around the fire. We just need a a bark delivery now and our fire pit is complete.

It may not look like much at the minute but we have gone from a grassy, weed ridden area to a beautiful fire pit area in two weeks. We have also moved the large polytunnel frame which next week will be covered in net and made into a new, protected growing space ready for our seeds.

Thursday 3rd April

It’s official! We have started our allotment sessions for the 2025 growing season. Our new group were so excited to get onto the minibus and head off to the allotment. We chatted about what we might see and do when we got there. The grown-ups spoke to the children about the jobs we needed to get started and one involved building a new fire pit however when we arrived we were amazed to spot something in our pond. Tadpoles! Everyone was thrilled to see the little tadpoles swimming around and this instigated lots of discussions about pond life and pond safety so the fire pit building was delayed a little.

After a chat around the pond, it was time to get busy. The children began clearing back the area for the new fire pit and pulling up the weeds. This was a tricky job, especially when we had so many things going on to distract us. We found the ‘Worlds Biggest Worm’, lots of centipedes and a rather large spider who is currently living in our shed. We finally finished the area but we were all feeling rather hungry so the gazebo went up and it was picnic time!

After lunch we collected our tools and the weed membrane and got to work. We chatted about tool safety and how we use a hammer correctly. The children then got to work securing the membrane to the ground. By the end of the day, the ground was half covered and we are looking forward to finishing it off next week.

Tuesday 15th October

Today we continued the renovation of our allotment. The group worked so hard to ensure the allotment will be ready for the Spring 2025 growing season. Now that our poly tunnel, shed and pond are complete, we turned our attention to the top of our allotment. We decided to pull out the weeds and assess how many mini beasts we have living there. We were amazed to not only find a whole family of mini beasts but a huge variety of mushrooms. We found grey ones, cream ones, blue ones and brown ones. The children very sensibly pointed out that we should not touch the mushrooms as they may be poisonous. 

 We cleared the whole top section of our allotment and it looks amazing. Lisa cut back some holly which we placed into the shed to dry out. Holly can be used to light fires so it is very handy to have around in the winter season. It also makes a very nice, cracking sound when it burns. 

 After lunch it was time to harvest our pumpkins. This year has been a bit of a disappointing year for vegetables but we did have two pumpkins to bring back to nursery as well as a lot of delicious red apples. The children helped to shake the tree and giggled with delight as the apples rained down around us. 

Tuesday 8th October

This week we all woke to very heavy rain and we wondered if we would be able to visit our allotment. We decided to go and we are so pleased we did! We found lots of signs of Autumn and we enjoyed observing what the damp weather brings with it. We began our day by finally finishing our shed so it is now ready for Spring and any wet weather we may have. The children were so proud of themselves! The other children helped Lisa and Jen tackle the overgrown flower beds. At 11 o’clock, the children were all feeling tired so we sat in the shed and listened to a wonderful story.

Our story was all about slugs and the children thought it was hilarious. This then led to us onto a slug hunt. We looked closely and we found snails, slugs and woodlice. Then Lisa spotted something moving. It was a baby frog!

All of a sudden the rain came down so we quickly hid in the shed. Luckily it was lunch time so everyone sat happily eating a lovely warm meal.

Tuesday 24th September

What a busy day we had on our allotment! When we arrived we chatted about what jobs we had that day and then the children decided which job they would help with. We needed to empty the big shed and clean it for the winter, clean and tidy the little shed, sort out our new poly tunnel and place all the pots and trays inside it ready for the growing season.

The children got straight to work carrying all the pots and trays into the poly tunnel where we sorted them into size and shape order before placing everything tidily on the shelving. Lisa continued working in the poly tunnel with a group of children sorting seeds, wheelbarrows and our potting station whilst Tara and Brittany worked in the sheds. We have lots of resources in our shed which needed to be checked over so we went through each box looking at the resources and sorting out anything which was not needed anymore. We came across a box full of binoculars, bug viewers and activities which we can explore next year. The children helped to tidy it away, placing it in a newly cleaned out box with a lid on. We also found our hammock and lots of clips and pegs for den building. As we emptied one of the boxes we found something a little strange. It was small creature which was very furry. We thought about what it could be. The suggestions were a baby hedgehog or a bumblebee but after some discussions we realised it was actually a caterpillar!

We looked at our watches and realised we had worked through lunch so it was time to stop, down tools and get some food. We definitely deserved a big lunch as we had worked so hard. After lunch we continued our tidying and sorting. The children have been amazing and our allotment is now really taking shape.

Tuesday 17th September

Today a new group of children visited the allotment and there was still a lot of work to get done. We talked about how to keep ourselves safe, in and around our allotment. We are still redeveloping our allotment and it is coming together nicely but we all knew we had a lot of jobs to get on with. We started by listing the jobs which needed to be completed. We needed to weed the beds, move the old compost bins, deseed the sunflower heads, dig up the potatoes and move the branches to the compost bin which were cut down last week. It was going to be a busy day!

A group of children started to deseed the sunflowers whilst others moved the branches and dug up the potatoes. As we were digging we stumbled upon a huge family of baby frogs hiding in one of our beds. As the bed needed work we thought about what we could do to keep them safe. We decided to move them closer to the pond. The children helped to carry them one at a time and placed them at the side of the pond. Some of the frogs were very sensible and sat happily whilst they were transported across the allotment whilst others decided to get a little ‘hoppy’ and tried to jump out of our hands. Finally, we did it and managed to move them all across safely. We were then able to tackle the potato bed correctly and to our amazement we dug up a bucket full of potatoes! What could we use them for? One child suggested chips with salt on whilst another suggested mashed potato. Now that sounds tasty!

The rest of the day was spent clearing areas ready for our new fire pit. Before we knew it, the time had come to go back to nursery. We can’t wait to see what our allotment will look like when it’s finished.

Monday 5th August

This week was another busy week for our allotment redevelopment but as usual the children were amazing! We began by separating into two groups. One group helped to dig out the potatoes and dig over the bed ready for planting whilst the other group helped to dig up our fruit bushes which are being relocated to another area of our allotment. We then began to remove the bottom of the old fruit cage which was very tricky!

As we began to move the wooden planks we spotted lots of different creatures. We spotted a frog, a moth and lots and lots of mini beasts! Too many to count! Our allotment is really coming together and this would not be possible without the children’s support. They have enjoyed helping to redevelop the area and we are looking forward to creating our new nature area in the upcoming weeks. On our return to nursery, the children enjoyed cleaning their potatoes in preparation for their lunch tomorrow. 

Tuesday 23rd July

This week we continued our work on the redevelopment of our allotment space. Now that we have collapsed our small poly tunnel and taken down our fruit cage, it was time to tackle the flooring. Again, we reiterated how to use a claw hammer and the children took in it turns, with the support of an adult, to take up the old poly tunnel floor. As we began to lift the floor, we were surprised by a huge frog which had been hiding underneath. We moved the frog to a safer place so we could resume our work.

We also have lots of plastic sheeting for another project on our allotment. They needed to be moved to the top of the allotment in preparation for our new nature area but they were a tricky shape and size. They also wobbled however this made all the children laugh as they made some very funny sounds. Thirty ‘wobble board's’ later and the children had carefully stacked the plastic sheets against the shed.

All of this work was exhausting so we had a lovely leisurely lunch before getting back to work and watering the plants. Our big polytunnel currently resembles a jungle due to the amount of tomato plants in there!

Tuesday 16th July

Our allotment is to receive a face lift over the next six months which is very exciting and today we began to discuss plans with the children. They had some amazing ideas about building a huge pond for every frog in the world to live in and also to make our own city on the allotment. These are great ideas and at Childsplay, we are always thinking big however we did have to scale down some of the more ‘magical’ plans.

The children began by emptying our small polytunnel and placing our growing plants into the big polytunnel. Then it was time to strip the cover off, move the frame and start to take up the old wooden floor. Tara took up the first piece of flooring demonstrating to the children how we use our claw hammer. Everyone then took it in turns to take up the wooden floor and then stack it in the fire pit ready for burning. Soon we had a rather large pile of wood!

At the bottom of our allotment, some children began to pick the raspberries, blackcurrants and gooseberries in preparation for the dismantling of our fruit cage which is a very big job! Once we had ensured we had collected as many as we could, we stood back and watched the grownups take it down (with a little encouragement from the children). We looked at what pieces of wood could be saved and which needed to be discarded. We began to stack the wood safely and stored it for the future (sustainability is key in this game!). We look forward to more planning and building work as we redevelop our space over the coming months.

Spring Term - Tuesday 2nd July

This week the children were very excited to visit our shed and check on Rainbow (our newly named bird who is nesting in our shed). We were still unsure as to what type of bird we had living in our shed but we were extremely excited to find out. We crept into the shed to see if we could spot her but she wasn’t in her nest. We were a little worried she may have left but we decided to open both shed doors to allow her easy access throughout the day. A little later, we were amazed to see something fly out of the shed and luckily one of the children knew exactly what kind of bird we have – she is a Robin!  We are thrilled and hope to spot some baby robins very soon.

We needed to get some work done on the allotment and so started to weed our beds in preparation for more planting. We then began the rather big task of repotting our tomato plants but we still have quite a few to go. We spotted lots of yummy raspberries and strawberries ready for eating so we started to collect them. After lunch it was time to share them and wow were they delicious!

We planted out more pumpkins and gave everything a really good water. A great job done!

Spring Term - Thursday 27th June

We had a busy week this week at the allotment. We began clearing the vegetable beds that were filled with weeds, with determination and teamwork it did not take long for the children to move all the weeds to the compost heap. We ended up with the biggest pile of weeds we have ever seen! The children then used the tools to turn over the soil in the beds and before we knew it, they were ready to begin planting.

Our plants in the polytunnel had continued to grow big and strong and were ready to be re-potted into bigger pots. The children helped Jen to decide which pots were bigger and then helped to fill them with compost. Jen explained to the children why the plants needed a bigger pot and then showed them how to take the plant from the pot without damaging the stem or the roots inside the pot. The children were amazed by the roots as they had filled the bottom of the pot. They then worked together to plant the tomato plants and give them lots of water.

As we packed up for the day and returned our tools to the shed, we decided to check the bird’s nest that was discovered the previous week. We carefully walked into the shed and the little bird jumped out of the nest and swooped out the door. One of the children laughed and began telling everyone that the bird had given him a shock. He wanted to make sure the little bird returned to the nest, so we decided to sit and wait patiently and very shortly afterwards the bird flew back into the shed and returned to the nest. We hope the bird will be there next week when we return to the allotment.

Spring Term - Thursday 20th June

It was a warm day on the allotment this week, so we started our day watering the plants in the polytunnel as they looked a little sad. The children filled up their watering cans and gave them lots of water. We looked at the various plants and decided which ones were ready to be planted outside in the vegetable beds. Some of the children helped Tara to turn over the soil in the bed ready for the pumpkins and then plant them in the ground. We all agreed they looked so much happier and had lots of room to grow.

Jen planted the sunflowers with a group of children and compared the different sizes that they could see. Some of the sunflowers were already as tall as some of the children. They planted them in a long row at the top of the garden. We hope they grow nice and tall and that they will give the allotment lots of colour as the flowers emerge.

There were lots of plants still to go into the ground so Lisa worked with a small group of children to plant, sweetcorn, brussel sprouts and butternut squash in the vegetable beds. The children were excited to see different plants being planted and talked about the differences they could see in the plants. Some had big leaves and some were very tall. One of the children then began collecting all of the plant pots from the plants that had now been planted into the ground. She stacked them really high and carried them to the polytunnel independently to put them away ready to be used again.

To finish our day we decided to look at the pond as we could see lots of things moving under the water. Tara carefully moved the plants from the top of the water and screeched with excitement as she spotted an abundance of tiny little frogs!! Each week we check the pond and see many tadpoles and even newts but this was our first time to spot baby frogs. They happily jumped around the pond and the children were thrilled to watch. I wonder what we will spot in our pond next week as it seems to grow each week!

Spring Term - Thursday 13th June

After our productive week last week, we knew what jobs we had to do so we quickly got busy with the top section of the allotment. There were so many different weeds and flowers growing together, we talked about which plants would attract the bees and why they would be important to keep on our allotment. There were so many mini beasts hiding amongst the grasses and in the soil. Some of the children found snails hiding under the leaves and decided to create a space for them to stay. As we pulled the weeds from the beds the piles began to mount up and our wheelbarrows were quickly filled. One of the children asked to empty the wheelbarrow into the compost bin and showed the grown ups how easy it is to manoeuvre a full-size wheelbarrow around the allotment. We were all amazed and helped to quickly fill the barrow up again so it could be emptied.

We explored different tools today to help with the allotment clear up introducing loppers, large brushes, and rakes. We worked together safely to gather everything together to prepare the beds ready for next week as we have lots of plants in the poly tunnel ready to be planted. The morning passed very quickly and we had worked up a good appetite for our picnic lunch. During lunch there was lots of laughter from the children but also lots of chattering from the magpie that sat in the trees above as we ate our sandwiches. The children continued to spot many different mini beasts, the centipede was the most exciting as one of the children explained this was his favourite minibeast. He then asked the grown ups if it was time to get to work yet as he was ready to finish off what he was doing before lunch. So off we went to finish clearing the bed.

The time began passing so quickly and we had to water both poly tunnels and the vegetable beds. Everyone picked a watering can and filled them up, it did not take long to give all of the plants a big drink. We quickly looked at how well they were growing and at the changes since last week. We discussed as a group what we could do next week and which beds the plants could be planted in. We then began packing up to head back to nursery. As Tara moved past the pond she spotted something moving. When she looked closer she gasped as she saw the biggest frog popping his head above the water. The children looked closer as he was camouflaged very well amongst the pond plants. We cleared some of the debris from the top of the pond so we could see closer. We noticed movement inside of the net, and saw several large tadpoles and a newt! We sat down so we could look more closely at the newt and some of the children wanted to hold it very carefully. We then released it back into the pond and waved goodbye to it as we had to head back to nursery.

Spring Term - Tuesday 6th June

This week we had a lot of work to do! The weeds had grown yet again so we needed to tackle them. We decided to start the area around the pond and towards the top of our allotment. The children chose buckets and wheelbarrows to move the weeds to the big pile ready for burning. They worked tirelessly pulling up the weeds and transporting them to the correct space. As we pulled the weeds up, we spotted lots of different minibeasts along the way. There were spiders, woodlice and worms to name a few. Our 3-4’s group are always very intrigued by minibeasts and love nothing more than viewing them up close!

Once the area was cleared, some children sat on the bench behind the pond admiring their handy work. Then it was lunch time before we got busy with more weeding. We weeded the beds beside the fruit cage before heading inside to see what was growing. We were amazed to see we have gooseberries, raspberries, black and redcurrants as well as strawberries. We can’t wait to taste them!

 It was soon time to water the vegetable beds and both polytunnels. This is a very big job but with everyone complete with a watering can in hand, we got everything watered quickly. We headed back to nursery on the minibus where some of the children took the opportunity for a power nap.

Spring Term - Tuesday 28th May

Our allotment day began with lovely sunshine so we immediately set to work weeding some of the beds which need to be replaced. We had grand plans of weeding and then building our new beds however we were not prepared for finding so many mini beasts! We observed some of the beautiful flowers which had grown and spotted several bees happily sitting on them, one of which was one of the biggest bees we had ever seen before! There were spiders, worms, centipedes and wood lice galore. The children are hugely intrigued and we chatted about the type of homes the mini beasts have, what they might eat (we seem to think it may be the mini beasts who have been enjoying munching on our wooden vegetable beds!). Some of the weeds were really tricky to get out and we tried all different techniques. We tried spades, forks and even our bare hands. The doc leaves and dandelions were particularly stubborn. One of the children showed us just how it’s done and with a lot of determination and strength, he managed to pull out a huge weed which was even too tricky for the grown ups.

We had an early lunch as we were soooooo hungry. It must have been all the hard work we had put into our weeding. The children enjoyed chatting and eating until we spotted a rather large black cloud rolling in. We already knew the forecast for the afternoon was rain but we had our fingers crossed it wouldn’t arrive. We grabbed our food bags, coats and water bottles and raced to the big shed. The big shed was warm and dry and we listened to the rain as it pitter pattered down onto the roof. We needed to think of a new plan as the beds we had been weeding were starting to get very muddy and soggy! We decided to head to the little poly tunnel and prepare it for all the pots of vegetables which have been growing over the last few weeks. The children helped to move sunflowers. cucumbers, marigolds and pumpkins so we could focus on planting more seeds in the big poly tunnel.

One group of children worked hard to repot our tomato plants and some of our sunflowers whilst the other children planted some herbs, lupin, strawberries, grasses and flowers. It was hard work filling all the traps and pots with compost and some of the seeds were really small so we needed to use our pincer fingers to drop them into place. We made sure we labelled everything and placed them along the benches. We gave everything a drink before we headed back to the minibus. We can’t wait to get back and see how our seeds are doing.

Spring Term - Tuesday 7th May

Today was an extremely productive day at the allotment. The children have worked very hard preparing the beds for their seedlings to be planted in. One area of the allotment had become overrun with weeds but after some hard work we managed to clear most of it back. We also continued to build our new vegetable beds and now we have three in place. You may recognise the wood we used to build our beds. It is the wood from our old nursery fence. Sustainability and recycling at its best! The children helped to turn over the soil and planted some lettuce, spring onions and beans in them.

 We checked on our polytunnel and were amazed by what is growing. We now have sprouts, marigolds, tomatoes, sweetcorn and courgettes sprouting. We can’t wait for them to grow a little bigger so we can repot them or move them outside. We also enjoyed checking out the pond which had lots of movement. We were amazed to spot hundreds of tadpoles all swimming around. We can’t wait to have frogs jumping across our allotment. We also checked out the fruit trees which are beginning to blossom. This year we are hoping for lots more pears, apples and plums.

Spring Term - Thursday 2nd May

Wow, what a productive day we had on the allotment! The day started with us sitting in the fire pit and talking about the jobs we needed to do that day. The children chose the job they would like to engage in for the morning. One group helped to weed the large bed, the second group helped with planting and water in the polytunnel whilst the last group helped to repair our broken step and start to build new vegetable beds.

The children in the polytunnel were so excited when they realised their marigolds had started to sprout. This began a conversation about why those plants had begun to sprout but others had not. We then discussed how big the plants would grow and what they might look like.

 Some children helped to use the saw and hammer to repair a broken piece of step. There were a lot of discussions about what materials and tools we would need. After repairing the step, we moved onto one of our vegetable beds which needed completely renewed. The children were amazing and quickly made a new bed for the lavender plant to live in. Our afternoon saw the children begin to create a new vegetable bed for the large growing space. Their morning tool work had come in very handy. We will have carpenters all round before we know it.