Lets start growing!

We've made a start at growing!







Today at lunchtime club we made some mini propegators using empty milk cartons.  The group have planted Chilli seeds and Basil, as January is a great time to start sowing them.

We have seeded some sweetpeas in recycled cardboard tubes.  We used the carboard tubes because sweetpeas like to have room for their roots to grow, they also don't like having their roots disturbed so when the seedlings are big enough they can be planted straight into the ground.

The students have taken their seedling back to their tutor rooms to look after them. Hopefully they will remember to water them.

Lets see how long they take to germinate.

Leaf mulch

LEAF MOULD

Making our own compost is great fun and free.

It takes about a year for the leaf mould to rot down and when it's ready it will act as a fantastic soil improver and a mulch for existing plants. A mulch is a soil covering.

We started by making a container from old unused fencing wire that had been saved.  We then collected all the leaves from around the Science block and filled the basket, as they start to rot we will continue to add move leaves. 

Leaf mould is best used for older plants and can be mixed in with other composts for planting out containers.

Let's Grow Vouchers 2011

Here's what we got for school using all the vouchers you collected.... Well done and thank you

Litter Pick

The Big Tidy Up
&

Wiltshire Wildlife Trust: John Bentley School joins forces with Trust in war on waste

Bird box repairs

We have started the New Year thinking about the local birds that come and visit our school, we noticed that the bird boxs' were in need of some repair.  Having checked on the RSPB website (click to visit) you can start cleaning the boxes from August until January. 


You can legally only remove unhatched eggs from bird box's between August and January and then they must be disposed of.


January is also "BIG GARDEN BIRDWATCH"  so log on to the RSPB website and start counting.

Mr Thornton took down the old bird box's, some were worst than others.

We removed all the nails and rotten wood, cleaned them out and set about repairing them.

The girls are fixing the lid to this bird box with salvaged material from an old blackboard,

The team, working hard at painting!
 

The birdbox's are now repaired, cleaned and painted, ready to put up!

Green Tomato Chutney

Mrs Bouchard's, green tomato chutney, that she made using our green tomatoes. Tastes delicious!