Team members having a wee break

Face Painting at Market day

Pupils singing to entertain customers.

A rainy day moved the plant sale under cover, and there was a huge variety of seedlings to choose from!

Broccoli, marrows, beans, cauliflower………you name it…..We have it…..

Pupils priced and named the vegetables, herbs and plants for sale.

The 29th May arrived at last.  Pupils were all on top form, as they were prepared for the Ettrick Market Day, the final Action for the Appetite for Action ‘Get Growing’ challenge.

The Day was rainy, however the community poured in to stock up their gardens with the vegetables of the day!!  Pupils held a raffle, had face pianting, and juice, tea, coffee and cakes and scones were for sale. 

The garden was proudly on display as well, and folk from far and wide came to support the Eco Team.  A proud and satisfied team ended the day with singing to entertain the guests.

Our Class Assistant is an important team member.

The Janitor is a new team member.  He has helped us put up shelving in our potting shed using the wood from an old window sill.

Our school Administrator helps us with ordering seeds etc, and adding up our profits.

We were a team of 6 pupils.  Our school consists of 6 pupils ranging from Primary 1 to Primary 7, and so we had no more pupils to recruit onto our team.  We recruited Mrs Jackson, our school administrator onto our team.  Her main duties were to assist us with the administration of ordering seedlings etc. and sending out letters to parents, and dealing with the grant money we were able to secure from the Edina Trust fund to assist us with expenses.  Mrs Bryson, the school cook, is an instremental member of the team.  She is an expert gardener, and the school cook.  As other staff and pupils are legally not able to use the school stove, she assists us with our cooking of our produce we grow in our garden.  She gives us valuable advice.  Allan Currie, the school Janitor was recently invited onto the team, as he has extended gardening knowledge and is a very clever hanyman.  He has helped us with things such as putting up shelving from ald window sill planks, and such important jobs.  He is very good at helping us build mini beast homes.  Sarah Howden is a member of the community, and has been doing work experience at our school.  She is a volunteer member and has played a huge role in helping pupils with the planting and weeding especially.  Gordon Branston, our Vice Chair of our Parent Council, also a volunteer member, especailly assists with the digging of more difficult areas such as the potato bedding, which is harder and more stoney.  Pupils value the role parents play in assisting them on special days.  All Parents will be actively involved in the Garden Market Day on the 29th May!!!!

Re-planting seedlings into larger containers.

Sorting more recycled containers.

Our own marrows that we have planted.

Looking after our garden.

Wow, they ready to plant in the garden!!

THE GREEN MEAN ECO TEAM IN ACTION:

With all the ‘Get Growing’ enthusiasm, the Ettrick pupils have certainly been planting frenzy, and have planted the following, some are different types of a vegetable to compare the leaves, taste, growth and look:

Peas:  Early Onwards, Kelvdon Wonder, Mangetout Golden Sweet

Beans: Runner, Scarlet Emperor, Broad, Aquadulce, Dwarf Bean helda, Dwarf bean Willdersey

           Dwarf French bean yugslauiann, Dwarf French bean huttclitesaup, Braod Bean crimson flower

Root Vegetables:  Parsnios, carrots, beetroot, Red barron Onions, Stuttgarter onoins, raddish

Salad Vegetables: tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, leaf salad, spring onions, rocket

other Vegetables:  cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, chillie, aubergines, peppers, brussel sprouts, caugettes, marrows, pumpkins, potatoes (8 varieties in our garden), rhubarb and spinach

Potato Varieties:  Rocket, Vale Emerald, King Edward, Maris Piper, Cosmos, Dunluce, Milva. Mafona

We also have planted a wide variety of flowers (Bulbs and seedlings) in our garden.  Each pupil has their own little patch of private garden as well, in which they have planted flowers to attract the mini beasts into the garden.  The following is a list of some of these plants:

Pot Marigold, aliam purple, assorted perenials, sweetpeas, gladioli, Broadaiae, giant yellow sunflower, Calendulao, Dutch Iris, Agatech golden jubilee, pertunia, daffodils and others.

Some are in the garden beds, and many are potted.  The seedlings for garden market day are healthy and ready for sale!

Garden Market Day will be held at the school from 1pm to 4pm.  The pupils will be selling their vegetable, herb and flower plants.  They will also have paper bio degradable pot planters which they have made for sale.  The event has been advertised on Borders Radio, in the local newspaper, and on the ‘What’s On’ website.

28th May will see the Green mean eco-Team preparing the final stages of their Garden Market Day.  They will be making lables for their sale plants, posters to let visitors know what is going on, and posters with prices.

pots made from newspaper.

Old wood re-used to make two compost bins.

Old window sills and old tables used for shelving for seedlings in our potting shed.  Recycled 2 litre bottles used for planting seedlings.

The pupils at Ettrick set themselves an action challenge to use as many items as they can in the garden.  Earlier in the year, they held an Eco School meeting, and listed the items they had been such as 2 litre empty cooldrink bottles, and empty food containers.  They realized that although they were already re-using/recycling 7 items, their were many more that could be used.  They then made up a list of 11 items, and began a chart to challenge each other to bring these items from home, which other wise would have been thrown away.  the pupils have successfully collected all 12 items, kept a record graph chart of the amount of each item collected, and used every item so far in the Get Growing challenge!  Over and abov that, a pupils bought an old window sill to school, and the wood was used to make shelving in our potting shed.  With re-used wood, we have had 4 new raised beds made, each about 2 squared metres!!!  That has increased our growing space even more!!!!!  The team has not bought one pot for planting this year, all are paper-made, recycled goods, and old pots from previous years.

The pupils made up a challenge list for themselves to increase their recycled materials that they use in the garden

Preparing the plastic bottles. The top section is for mini greenhouses and the bottom section is for seedlingsSeedlings have been planted in a range of recycled containers. These include plasti and polystirene cups, food containers, bottoms of plastic bottles, bottoms of milk bottles, bottoms of juice bottles and yougart cups………And thats all in a day

The pupils of Ettrick Primary School will hold a Garden Market Day on the 29th May 2010, Saturday from 1pm to 4pm.  Pupils have made posters and flyers to advertise this occassion to the community.  It will be announced on Radio Borders under the events for that day.  An advert has been sent to the local news papers and ‘Whats on’.  As we are 18 miles from the nearest town, we have to go the extra mile to attract folk to our event.  Pupils will be selling the seedlings and plants they have planted to raise funds for the school, as well as to promote health and fitness, and sustaining our world,

These stakes have been placed down the Valley to Advertise this event

Pupils have made a banner and hung it out at the front of their school to advertise our Garden Market Day

 in the community.

Pupils have studied all about the facts of what makes compost and why we want to use it in our garden.  Because our garden is an organic garden, we make our compost from organic matter such as dead leaves and the fruit and vegetable peels that we do not eat.  Nature goes to work to turn this matter into rich nutrients, which then mix with the soil and becomes food to help our plants grow.

we have now have 5 compost bins around our garden.  We add many things such as pealings, newspaper, grass cuttings, dead plants, leaves, soil, teabags and worms to our compost.

We also made layers of these things in a big glass tank in the class to watch how this process happens.  This is our home made wormery.

Collected egg shells, teabags and our classroom compost/wormery

Pupils collecting leaves around the school ground to place in the compost binsFilling up the compost binPupils preparing the soil in their own patch of gardenThis is a packet of peelings that a pupil has bought to school for the compost bin