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.

Spring Term - Thursday 25th April

This week the children split into three groups. Two of the groups began preparing the potato beds whilst the other group helped to weed the middle bed. It was a tough job but with a little perseverance, we managed to clear out the beds, turn them over and plant our potatoes.

We took some time to clean out our pond and to our amazement spotted a very special visitor. The children thought it might be a lizard! It certainly looked like a lizard but it was in fact a newt. We talked about being gentle with the newt and then placed it back into the water.

After lunch, it began to rain but we were safe and snug from the rain in our poly tunnel where we started some planting. We began by filling up lots of trays and pots with compost before placing seeds inside. We planted a huge variety of fruits, vegetables and flowers. We then watered our seeds and look forward to watching them grow. 

Spring Term - Thursday 18th April

This week we headed back to the allotment for the start of the growing season. The children were so excited to get on the minibus and chatted about the journey on the way. We crossed a really big green bridge which the children pointed out and we laughed out loud as we went over the bumps on the big bank. When we arrived, we were greeted by a new allotment owner who had a dog. The dog is only 9 months old but was very big and friendly! We also heard a noise coming from another allotment and as we investigated, we were met with a group of chickens who were making lots of noise. The children giggled as they watched them move around.

 The first job of the day was to start the preparation of our paths. We had been lucky enough to have a huge pile of bark donated so it was all hands on deck. The children grabbed wheelbarrows, buckets and spades and off we went. The children (and adults) helped to fill the wheelbarrows and buckets with bark, we then headed back to the allotment and started to cover the paths. This was a very tiring job but with some wheelbarrow rides and a chat with the chickens in between loads, we managed to get most of the bark in before lunch.

We enjoyed lunch time in the big shed as the rain came down and the wind blew. We were all tucked up, nice and toasty in the shed with a hot chocolate to keep the cold at bay. Before we knew it, it was time to get busy. We really wanted to explore the pond area so we talked about how to keep safe in that area. We talked about the pond life which may be under the surface of the water and we are very excited at the thought of pond dipping next week. You just never know what we may discover! We will keep you updated.

Autumn Term - Thursday 5th October

Today we revisited our allotment and were very excited to see that our pumpkins were getting very big! Not long now and we can harvest them and take them back to nursery to carve. As we are winding down the allotment in preparation for the winter months, we had lots of little jobs to complete. We split into two groups with one group working in the polytunnel and the other group working in the orchard. Our apple tree has grown an amazing amount of apples this year and we needed to compost any fallen apples.

Once we composted our apples, we shook our apple tree to see which apples were ready. We were amazed by how many apples fell onto the ground. There were lots and lots! We collected them whilst thinking about all the amazing things we could make with them. After lunch we began to work on the beds. We weeded as well as collected some of the vegetables we have been growing. Just look at our amazing turnips!

Whilst weeding, we spotted lots of different mini beasts hiding amongst the plants. The children were fascinated by them and in particular how the caterpillar moved. We looked at the different flowers and plants we could start to take seeds from. We managed to collect seeds from our nasturtium, marigolds and sunflowers. These will be dried out ready for next years growing season.

Spring Term - February 2023

It is getting closer to that time of year again when the children begin to visit our allotment. As always we are very excited about the upcoming growing season and have already begun to plant some seeds and bulbs at nursery in preparation for our return. Over the winter months Tara and Lisa have been preparing the allotment by filling the beds with manure, preparing our compost bins, cleaning the sheds out and making repairs.

The children will be heading back to the allotment in early March and we look forward to keeping you updated with all of our growing efforts. As usual if you have any spare seeds/tools or plant pots you no longer require, we will happily take them to use on our allotment.

Summer Term - Tuesday 21st of June 2022

The 3-4’s children enjoyed returning to the allotment this week. For some of the group it was their first time and they were excited. We began our morning introducing the children to the new environment and showing them everything, they could not believe how big the shed was! As we looked around the allotment we were shocked at how quick everything had grown and we had a lot of work to do. The children chose their tools and began weeding in the beds. They each collected a small wheelbarrow that they could fill up to transport the weeds to the compost bins.

We then moved to the bigger bed to see what what growing in there as we crouched to look at the beetroot a baby frog hopped in front of everyone. The children squealed with excitement and stood back as Lisa guided the frog closer to the pond where it happily sat watching everyone. Some of the children worked with Angela to help tidy the pond area and remove some of the growth so we could see the pond life.

A group of the children worked with Brittany to remove the weeds from around the strawberry plants and discovered some ripe strawberries which were ready to be picked. We counted them and then had a little taste they were delicious. They also enjoyed pulling out the carrots that were ready to be harvested. Our poly tunnel is bursting with plants ready to be panted into the soil the children that worked with Lisa helped to plant out lots of different flowers in the flower beds and planted the rest of the kale plants.

To finish our day we had to water everywhere as it was very warm and the plants were very thirsty. The sweetcorn plants are getting very big now so we turned the sprinkler on to give them extra water. The children also enjoyed being watered as they ran underneath the sprinkler one of the children thought it was ‘like having a cold shower’ they had lots of fun.

Spring Term - Monday 23rd May 2022

Time to plant our sweetcorn!

3-4’s enjoyed a trip to our allotment again this week and what a busy week it was. We started our day by weeding our largest bed which we usually keep for our pumpkins but on this occasion we decided to plant our sweetcorn plants as they are getting far to big for the poly tunnel. The children enjoyed planting their sweetcorn into rows, we then watered them as they looked very thirsty. As we weeded the bed, one fo the children spotted something amazing. A huge, big frog! We all observed the frog before placing it safely beside the pond. The frog sat for a little while before taking a huge leap into the water. Our new wildlife pond (which now takes us to three!) is thriving and we are noticing lots of bees, butterflies and birds visiting our pond area. We were also lucky enough to spot a newt who along with his family has moved in.

Some children worked with Tara in the fruit cage and we managed to weed the whole thing before placing sheets of plastic up against one side to protect it and repair the netting. We looked at our strawberries, gooseberries and currants which are getting huge! The children can’t wait to taste our strawberries!

Another group of children worked with Lisa and Jen to weed the top section of our allotment which is beginning to get a little overgrown. We plan on creating new pumpkin beds here in the future. We finished our day by planting butternut squash, nasturtium and kale into our beds.

Spring Term - Monday 21st March 2022

This week the children have enjoyed turning over the last of our vegetable beds in preparation for planting. We found lots of mini beasts and this was a highlight of the day. One child found a huge, long worm which he enjoyed admiring whilst the other children spotted bees, centipedes, millipedes and spiders.

We planted our potatoes, strawberries, salads and onions into the beds and then the children enjoyed having a well deserved rest in the orchard area on their new wooden bench. We checked on the growth in our polytunnel and were amazed to see our cosmos are growing very well. We can’t wait to see what colours we have.

Spring Term - Monday 14th March 2022

This week a new group of children joined us on the allotment and what a busy day we had! We looked through our seeds and made some decisions as to what we would like to plant. We finally decided upon cucumbers, chillies, nasturtium, sweet pea, peas and beans to name a few. The children worked tirelessly to fill all the pots and trays and we still didn’t get finished! Next week we are looking forward to planting out some potatoes and onions into our beds. We are also noticing lots of changes to our allotment at the moment. Our fruit trees now have small buds and our rhubarb is looking very red and yummy!

Spring Term - Monday 7th March 2022

More prepping of our vegetable beds

This week the children were very excited to get to work and we started the day by covering the orchard area in weed membrane. We then began the process of scooping up the bark and placing it into the wheelbarrows before transporting it over to the orchard. Ada and Hannah worked hard together and made an excellent job of raking out the bark evenly. Although we did run out, the orchard is beginning to look amazing. We also had a new wooden bench donated to place in this area and we are very much looking forward to our summer picnics sitting under the fruit trees.

After discovering a mouse house last week, this week we found a large family of millipedes under our flagstones. They were very fast and very long!

Spring Term - Monday 28th February

Today we started visits back to our allotment and we were all very excited. We collected our bags of compost, potatoes and onions from our local allotment shop on the way. When we arrived we decided to tackle the vegetable beds and orchard area. We have big plans to turn our orchard into a quiet space where we can rest under the fruit trees and also picnic there in the summer months. We started by raking back lots of the old weeds and grasses before collecting in all of the stones and bug homes which had been placed there in the previous year. We cut back some of the overhanging branches to create a beautiful space we can enjoy as a group in the coming months. It took a long time to clear everything back and eventually we came to the last block of wood. As we lifted it, we spotted something! It was a small nest made of wool. Who could live there? We decided it may be a little mouse home so chose to place the wood back down. We then moved back a piece of grass and to our amazement spotted a little hole in the soil. This confirmed our suspicions, we have a little mouse living under our tree in the orchard. The children also spotted a strange bug crawling along the floor. After some research we found it was a two tailed bristletail!

Autumn Term - Tuesday 16th November 2021

After last weeks adventures and believing we have an animal living under our shed, the children were excited to explore the allotment. We searched around but were unable to find any signs of animals. We checked under the shed but sadly nothing was there so we decided to get busy and finish off our digging jobs. We moved lots more compost across to the new vegetable beds and they are beginning to look very full. The children are all becoming very handy with a spade and fork now! 

 After a spot of lunch we decided to engage in some pond dipping. We wondered what we might find after discovering we still had tadpoles last week. Tara moved a huge plant and some stones and we were all amazed to discover a family of frogs hiding in our pond. They began jumping around so we carefully replaced the stones and left them. We were amazed by the amount of frogs hiding and even more surprised by their size. We have a variety of different sized frogs on our allotment this year and at varying stages of the frog lifecycle. We have already spotted tadpoles and some froglets and now fully grown frogs! How exciting!

 As the weather changed and the rain came down we made our way to the shed where we shared a lovely story before heading back to nursery on the minibus. We were sad to go as this is our last visit to the allotment this year. We are almost ready for the new growing season and are excited at the prospect of growing lots more fruit, vegetables and flowers next year.

Autumn Term - Tuesday 9th November 2021

Today was a very busy day on our allotment. At the weekend our brand new beds were built and it was now our job to fill them with compost. The children took their tools and wheelbarrows and started to fill the beds but soon we were distracted by a family of snails who had decided to sit on the side of one of our old beds. The children were worried the snails might get hurt so relocated them to another part of the allotment. We then began to dig for minibeasts. We found a huge number of worms and quite a few woodlice.

After lunch we engaged in a spot of pond dipping. Dylan managed to catch a tadpole, much to our surprise! But how did we still have tadpoles? We were expecting a frog but four tadpoles later and still there were no frogs to be found. Where had all the frogs gone? We decided to head off on a frog hunt. We checked all the best ‘frog home’ places, the compost bin, the poly tunnel, under the decking, until we came to a long flower bed where a large frog had been spotted a few weeks prior. The children began to look for frogs but instead we spotted something else! A poo! Who could this poo belong to and why was it in our flower bed?

Freddie thought he had seen an orange tail which could mean only one thing – we had a sneaky fox on our allotment! We began to search for more evidence of a fox. We spotted a large void under our shed which Kirsten began to inspect. Underneath our shed was a pile of snail’s shells. Could this have been a foxy snack? We began to search further and found holes which had been dug around our allotment. Who could have done this? We started to research what type of animal it could be and decided upon three options, a fox, badger or hedgehog. But how would we find out for sure? Tara remembered back at nursery we have a wildlife camera which we could take to the allotment and leave there to catch the animal’s movements. The children were so excited. We can’t wait to find out what animal is hiding under our shed! We will keep you updated!

Autumn Term - Tuesday 2nd November 2021

This week we took our 3-4 year old group with us to the allotment for the very first time. The children were so excited to get on the minibus. What an adventure to drive away from nursery, over rivers, across bridges and up huge steep banks! Once we had arrived, we walked down to the green gate of our allotment. The children were so excited! From this spot you are unable to see our allotment but as soon as the gate was opened the children were in awe of their new space. Hannah pointed out that the allotment belongs to preschool but the adults explained that in fact the allotment belonged to all the nursery children. Hannah was astounded that she had an allotment to share with her friends!

We all sat on the long benches in the shed and got ourselves ready for a busy day. We made a list on the jobs board before the children were given the guided tour. First there was the orchard, then the greenhouses, fruit cage, polytunnel, fire pit, pond and wildlife area and then the tools shed. The first job of the day was to sort out the compost bins and complete a spot of weeding ready for more new beds to be built. The children learned quickly where the tools and wheelbarrows were kept. They worked hard digging with their forks and spades as well as using the loppers to cut down some of the tougher weeds. They filled their wheelbarrows with lots of grass, weeds and old plants before placing them on the compost bin. We also checked underneath the compost bin and were amazed to find beautiful new compost which we will be using next year.

After lunch around the table in the fire pit, it was time to start planting some new fruit trees and bushes. Everyone carefully helped to dig holes and placed their bushes inside. We planted three new apple trees, two gooseberry bushes, two red currants and two black currants. The children were very excited at the thought of making their own juice next year!

Next, we had to move some plastic sheets so we were able to start laying down the cardboard on our beds. The children amazed us with their strength and team work as they helped to move the sheets to our store area. This will ensure we have excellent soil ready for next year’s growing season. Sadly, it was soon time to leave. The children (and staff) had a wonderful day. It was time for a rest on the minibus before having a yummy tea back at nursery.

Autumn Term - Thursday 14th October 2021

This week we had a very special surprise for the children – a new grown up! Now that we had taken out all the old vegetable beds, it was time to put in some new ones but we needed someone who could teach us about the tools and techniques that would be needed. Tara’s dad, Ronnie came to help and brought with him some tools which we had not used before. We got busy immediately by carrying the long planks of wood down the path and lying them down ready. Ronnie showed us how to cut smaller pieces of wood to make anchors for our new beds. He then showed the children how we make holes in the wood with a battery-operated drill before showing us a strange tool which we did not recognise. It was a hand drill! Ronnie demonstrated how to use the hand drill and then each child took turns to drill a hole into the wood. We were then shown how to mark wood so we could attach the anchors into the correct place before hammering them together. Hammering was hard work but everyone worked together to ensure all the nails were secured into position. It was then time to drop the wood into place to create our first vegetable bed.

Aubrey was amazed by the hand drill and asked Ronnie to make a hole in the conker she had collected. Ronnie held the conker in position and another child skilfully placed the hole into the conker. Aubrey decided she would like to make a conker necklace and began emptying her pockets. Out came one conker, then two, then three and before we knew it there was a mound of conkers on the floor ready for holes. Once complete, Aubrey was thrilled with her conker necklace. As our vegetable bed began to take shape, some children helped to clear our pumpkin patch whilst others helped to clear out the old rhubarb, even creating rhubarb leaf hats as they did so!

Autumn Term - Thursday 30th September 2021

This week on the allotment the children chatted about the jobs we needed to get busy with. As usual we listed all the jobs on our job board and set to work. We have been drying out wood over the spring and summer months ready for our winter fires so the first job of the day was to gather all of our wheelbarrows and transfer the wooden logs to our wood store. The children worked hard manoeuvering their wheelbarrows around the vegetable beds and into the fire pit before stacking the logs neatly into our store. The children worked together tirelessly to complete the task and were so proud of themselves once it was finished. We are now all prepared for the winter season and cooking on the fire. 

After lunch we began to tackle the sunflowers. They were full of sunflower seeds which we needed to remove and dry out in preparation for planting next year. We were amazed by the amount of seeds we collected. We also collected lots of nasturtium seeds which we plan to use in our growing packs next year. 

Soon it was time to collect our amazing apples. We have had a huge crop this year and after Lisa gave the tree a little shake the children were able to collect them and take them back to nursery to share with all the units where we can engage in cooking, cutting and eating activities. The children giggled and screamed as the apples fell from the tree. We couldn't believe how many we were able to collect - a whole wheelbarrow full! We soon realised our apple tree needed a hair cut and using the loppers we began to give it a trim. The children watched on as the branches started to fall but what would we do with all of these branches? The children suggested we place them into the compost bin which they did. We then began to cut back our other fruit bushes. We also have a huge tree which has grown a lot this year and is now blocking some of the light into our greenhouse so Lisa began to cut back the largest branches. The children believed they were tree surgeons and began dragging the huge branches to our compost bins. As the branches coming down became larger and larger the children's mathematical language began to flow. "My branch is huge" said Rupert. "My branch is huger" replied Joseph. 

The end of the day came too quickly and just as we sat on the bus the rain began to fall. What a busy day we had had. Next week we are planning on tidying up our orchard and weeding some of the beds which we will then cover and get ready for Spring time.

Autumn Term - Thursday 23rd September 2021

This week at the allotment was an exciting week as some of the children had not visited the allotment and were intrigued by what they might see while they were there.  During the bus journey we talked about what things might be growing at the allotment and Olivia thought we might see flowers and even pumpkins!  

As we walked through the allotment gates the children were amazed and quickly wanted to explore the space, but first we gazed across the allotment and decided which jobs we would need to focus on today.  Very quickly the children thought of six different areas to focus on and were ready to get busy.  As this was the first time for some of the children Tara took the children on a tour of the allotment to explain each area and what the spaces are used for.  

The apple tree was bursting with big juicy apples and were over hanging the path so we moved the branch to walk down the path.  We looked at the greenhouse, fruit cage and poly tunnel and then walked towards the pond, thats when Olivia spotted the pumpkins and pointed to show everyone they were there.  Joseph began counting them and Lily asked when they would be ready to pick and was thrilled to discover it is very soon!

We collected our tools from the shed and all decided to help with the biggest bed that was filled with potatoes (and weeds). As the grown ups began turning over the soil Rupert spotted a huge potato and rushed to pick it up.  Everyone was excited and continued digging to see how many we could find, before we knew it we had a huge bucketful and an even bigger pile of weeds. Our vegetable beds are ready to be renewed this winter so we removed the wood from the edges and continued to dig the weeds out.  We very quickly had a big clear space ready for the new beds to be added.

Everyone helped to dig and it was very hard work so we stopped for lunch and sat on the benches for a rest.

After lunch Sam, Rupert and Joseph wanted to look at the pond and they discovered a tiny little frog sitting on the edge!  Sam was so excited and wanted everyone else to see so Tara let the frog hop onto her hand, the children were amazed by how small it was.

Some of the children wanted to continue digging with Lisa and Tara and some of the children began a new task with kirsty which was collecting sunflower seeds from the huge sunflowers that were dried out and ready to harvest.  Lisa talked with the children about the sunflower heads and what we could do with the seeds once they were collected.  We also discussed leaving some of the sunflowers so the birds could eat the seeds.  Jenny agreed this was a good idea as the birds might be hungry and would love to have sunflower seeds to collect.  Toby carefully picked the seeds and then put them into the pot and was sure there was at least 100 seeds in there! Rishaan looked at the pot and guessed there may be 29, this sparked lots of conversations about numbers.  The time had passed by very quickly and it was time to return to nursery.  We returned to our list to see how many things we could tick of our list and we had completed four tasks, rupert reminded everyone we could continue the others next week.

Summer Term - Week 4, 4th August 2021

We prepared for a very hot day today at the allotment but we were not quite prepared for the weather we encountered!  

We began making a list of jobs for the day. Kirsten continued weeding the vegetable beds with Charlotte and Daphne and very quickly had them weed free. Lisa and Amy decided to tackle a huge job with the help of all the other children and cleared the top area of our growing beds which were very overgrown with an abundance of weeds, nettles and wild flowers. It was very hard work but we worked together to cut and pull out the weeds and fill up the wheelbarrows. Joseph and Lewis took turns to empty them into the compost bins.

We then began preparing a space for our new greenhouse and worked together to move the plant pot store and collect all of the plant pots from around the allotment.

The weather was hot so we put up a shelter so we could hide in the shade. Ruadhan found a snail and put it under the canopy as he didn’t want him to get too hot.

After a busy morning we stopped for lunch, we had only been sitting a couple of minutes when it began! The rain came, the biggest raindrops you have ever seen and they did not want to stop!  We listened as they hit the top of the shed. Lewis was pleased as the rain had saved the children from doing a job! We didn’t need to water the plants now. Ossie was concerned the rain might never stop, it was so heavy and the drops were bouncing inside the shed doors.

As we finished lunch we peeked outside and the rain continued to bounce on the ground, we decided we would have to make a dash to the poly tunnel to finish the jobs we had already started before heading back to nursery.