THE GREEN FLAG IS OURS !!!!

WE DID IT!!!

I've not been online a lot recently and this is part of the reason why..............thought you may like an update.
The School where I work is now the first senior school in our education authority to be awarded the ‘Green Flag’ from the organisation Eco-Schools. I’ve written about this before but for those who still don’t know what Eco-Schools is; it’s an international organisation for schools aimed at raising awareness of and supporting action to protect our environment. I am the eco-schools co-ordinator for our school and the ‘Green Flag’’ is the award every school aspires too. I am so proud of these kids, they recycle just about any thing and evey thing that can be recycled from the school and they have spent hours planting and tending our gardening projects. We will recieve a 'real' flag in the post very soon,but untill then the kids made lots of small green paper flags and ran around the school telling every one we had passed our assessment.
Every thing you could ever possibly want to know about Eco-Schools can be found here
http://www.ecoschoolsscotland.org/

Obviously I can’t name the kids or show the photographs of them, but we were in a couple of the local newspapers and one of the newspapers  can be found  online.  You may find this particular link interesting.
http://www.thecourier.co.uk/output/2009/11/19/newsstory14130792t0.asp

And to show their appreciation management presented me with a bouquet………………would you believe a GREEN BOUQUET!! I love it

WHERE DID THAT WEEK GO??.....and LOVAGE

WHERE DID THAT WEEK GO??.....and LOVAGE.

Can’t believe it’s a whole week since I’ve managed to get online for any length of time. Coping with the kitchen totally stressed me out and I needed a couple of days to recoup from the ordeal.

This last week has been the final week of term and I have been very, very busy at my work.

I’ve had more pupils outside getting involved in gardening projects.

We now have a herb garden, three potato barrels and lots more hedgerow bushes planted.

We also have beautiful planters either side of the main entrance with different heathers and lavender plants.

The Wild flowers we planted last year are beginning to grow and the woodland area is showing signs of spring. These kids really seem to take to the gardening.

Last weekend my PC died on me, thank heavens this time I have been backing up as I go. A while ago I bought a freestanding external hard drive, so glad I did because I have been using it religiously every night to back up any thing I had done that day on the computer. If I hadn’t done this I would have lost every thing. I have been so busy I haven’t had chance to get the PC looked at yet, I just hauled down my old laptop from the top shelf and have been making do with that. The lap top is ok………….only real problem is that it ‘lost’ its sound device a while ago, hence no videos. But apart for operating totally in ‘silent’ mode, the lap top does just fine until I get round to getting the PC looked at.

Now school is closed for the Easter break, two whole weeks without having to get up and go to work, oh bliss!! Already I’ve managed to get across the river to Tayport to visit a friend I don’t see very often. She made soup from the vegetables  she grows in her garden, flavoured with her own home grown herbs and washed down with wine she made from her berries last year. She gave me some Lovage……………….don’t think I’ve ever grown Lovage before. Any one know a good use for Lovage??? Sure you do, you probably have hundreds of uses for Lovage so please…… share your knowledge with me.


Two weeks is so little time to do every thing I plan to do. There is work in the garden, work in the kitchen, do a bit of drawing, do a lot of catching up here, fit all that around the inevitable babysitting and  still have time for the 5 day visit to my Mother and Sisters who live about 500 miles south of here.

But for now……………….it’s just very nice to have my kitchen back and round off my day with a bit of time here.

Autumn colours in the school grounds.

I had a group of pupils out in the grounds yesterday doing litter picking. These shrubs are beautiful but they do collect the litter. We stopped to admire the beautiful autumn colours. Our colours don't seen so vivid this year but this little patch is resplendent in yellow and orange.

The Eco-Schools Herb Garden

Who remembers the Eco-Schools Herb garden??

Back in May/June I wrote about a herb garden some of the pupils got involved in planting. The original blogs are here
http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/journal/item/40/What_is_a_herb_No_2

http://forgetmenot525.multiply.com/journal/item/42/Your_land_is_my_land_continuation_of_the_herb_garden_story

These pupils had never done any thing like this before and it was wonderful to see them out there getting their hands dirty and planting the herbs. I took a group of them to the local garden center to chose the herbs and a few days later we planted their herbs in a small garden next to the front entrance. I thought those of you who remember the original blog would like an update……………..as winter sets in look how well established our herb garden is. These kids should be proud of themselves.


Just recently we have been back in the garden digging over and preparing another corner close to the front entrance. This time we are planting a wild hedgerow. We have packed this tiny space full of Hawthorn, Dog Rose, Holly, and Dog Wood. There are almost 50 small bushes in all and if they all survive they will need thinning out in a couple of years. As if this wasn’t enough, I really splashed out and bought 500 wild bluebell bulbs, the pupils have planted these very close together in among the hedgerow bushes and all around the borders of the herb garden.

 I can’t wait for the spring when they will all bloom; it will be spectacular to have a great splash of bluebell blue greet you as you enter the school.

Your land is my land, continuation of the herb garden story

Today we planted the herbs. I ended up with 5 pupils aged 14 and 15 all planting herbs in this little garden just out side the front entrance.

 

I obviously can’t post the pictures of the puipils here, which is a bit of a shame but you will just have to take my word for it that they seemed to enjoy the experience and even agreed to go away and look up a few basic facts about the herbs they planted.

I am about to post these photos into the herb garden album, just to keep all the pictures together.

The music I chose to go with this is

‘This Land Is Your Land -- Arlo Guthrie and Pete Seeger’’ it seemed very fitting.

 

 

 

Eco-Schools, The Herb Garden

This is the tiny little plot just outside the front entrance where we are planting our herb garden. The first picture is the land as we inherited it, complete with old polystyrine carton, the land after cultivation and the herbs all ready to go in tomorow. As The garden grown I'll add more photos.

What is a herb, No 2

Following on from ‘What is a herb?’

That blog was a prelude to creating a very small herb garden just outside the front entrance to the school. Sure I have mentioned, possibly more than once, that I do ‘stuff’ for Eco-schools at my work and this proposed herb garden is one of the more recent Eco-Schools projects.

Last week I took 4 girls to a very nice family run garden centre, actually more like an old fashioned nursery. They seemed to have fun, looking at all the different plants, trying out the garden furniture and generally making the most of the classroom reprieve. We chose bird boxes, butterfly boxes and bird baths for our woodland project and bought quite a few herbs for our new herb garden. I picked up a few more bits over the weekend, some small trowels and forks and another couple of plants. The piece of land allocated to us for the herb garden is quite small and it was very overgrown, but I managed to find an experienced gardener volunteer who has agreed to oversee the project. He spent an hour or so digging it over last week and then came by yesterday to give it a final turn and fork in some very stinky chicken manure.

Tomorrow we are going out as soon as registration is over and getting these herbs into the ground. I’m amazed at how many pupils have volunteered for the gardening projects. To be honest I’m not convinced that any of them understand the importance of what we’re doing, they just like the idea of time away from classes, but that’s a start I guess. I haven’t told them I expect a little research on the herb THEY put into the ground, just a few words for our notice board; I’ll tell them that tomorrow after planting.  

These pictures are of the land before cultivation, the land after digging and the herbs all ready to get planted tomorrow.

WHAT IS A HERB?

What is a herb
I know this seems a very strange question but it is one I have been forced to ask my self this last week. I have mentioned before the Eco-School project I am involved in; planting a native wild woodland garden within the grounds of the school. This gardening project is quite large, it covers a fair sized piece of land but now I have been asked to take over a second, much smaller piece of land. This other piece of land lies right next to the main entrance to the school, it’s only about four meters by two meters and the reason I have been asked to deal with it is; well…… no one else seems to want to take responsibility for it. Apparently there used to be bushes and shrubs there but they were deemed a ‘rubbish’ trap and dug up. The gardeners don’t want it grassed because their rather large mower will not fit into such a small space.  I was asked if I could ‘do’ something with it as part of Eco-Schools, well how could  I refuse? I had a bit of a think and because it is part of Eco-Schools I thought we should be a bit more ambitious than an ordinary flower border. This brings me to the point. We have decided this tiny plot will make a lovely herb garden. Hence the question; ‘What is a herb?’ I must admit I didn’t think an answer to such a simple question could be so complex or so variable. It seems as if there could be many answers to the question. At times the term ‘HERB’  has been limited to only a dozen or so of seasoning and a handful of healing plants. Herbs have also been defined as plants of wisdom; plants that could help, assist and lead you along the path of life whether it be by healing or by an experience of becoming unwell and learning from it
To the botanist a herb is a shortening of the word herbaceous and describes a non-woody plant, which dies back down to the ground annually. Botanically the term is chiefly applied to perennials, although it can be applied to annuals as well as biennials. The primary definition given by dictionaries is "a seed-producing annual, biennial, or perennial that does not develop persistent woody tissue but dies down at the end of a growing season." But; these botanical definitions eliminate many plants that are traditionally regarded and used as herbs. There are many definitions, but the one that appeals to me is direct and to the point, it is A useful plant’ . If any part of a plant; flower, leaf, or stem is useful, or has efficacious properties, as an ingredient for health, flavour, or fragrance then, according to this definition, it is a herb. Using this definition herbs can include trees, annuals, perennials, seaweed and even funghi! Herbs can be used medicinally, culinarily, as pest repellents, dyes or as aromatics. They can be used to make teas, perk up food or to add flavour to vinegars, butters, dips, confectionary and mustards. Many herbs are grown for their fragrance and are used in potpourris or to scent bathwater, candles, oils or perfumes. The scientific / biochemical study of plants as medicine has its own terminology Phytomedicine, Phytotherapy and Phytopharmacology, to name but a few, but this is not of interest in this context.

If we take the definition of ‘A useful plant’, herbs have a variety of uses including culinary, medicinal, or in some cases even spiritual usage. The green, leafy part of the plant is often used, but herbal medicine makes use of the roots, flowers, seeds, root bark, inner bark (cambium), berries and sometimes the pericarp or other portions. General usage differs between culinary herbs and medicinal herbs. A medicinal herb may be a shrub or other woody plant, whereas a culinary herb is a non-woody plant, typically using the leaves. Any of the parts of the plant, as well as any edible fruits or vegetables, might be considered "herbs" in medicinal or spiritual use.

Culinary use of the term "herb" is much more specific and narrow. Culinary use typically distinguishes between herbs, the leafy green parts of the plant, and spices, all the other parts of the plant, including seeds, berries, bark, root, fruit, and even occasionally leaves. Culinary herbs are distinguished from vegetables in that they are used in small amounts and provide flavor (similar to spices) rather than substance to food.

Any plant contains numerous phytochemicals that have varying effects on the body. Even when consumed in the small levels that typify culinary "spicing", there may be some effects, and some herbs are toxic in larger quantities. For instance, some types of herbal extract, such as the extract of Hypericum perforatum (St. John's wort), or the Piper methysticum (kava plant) can be used for medical purposes to relieve depression and stress. But high amounts of these herbs may lead to poisoning, and should be used with caution.

Having found as many definitions as I could ever possibley want my next question is; What herbs shall we plant in our tiny herb garden? Bearing in mind that this plot is small, aproximatly four meters by two meters and it sits right outside the main entrance to the school, what would be the best herbs to plant there?

I have in mind herbs that give off a strong aromatic smell, something that the visitor would notice as she passes through the doors and into the school. Something that would activly welcome a visitor, that would make a pleasant and lasting impression on anyone who passes through our front doors. I think they would also have to fairly hardy plants, no good having something too fragile in such a busy place, especially a place peopled mostly buy boistrous teenagers. And my final thoughts on the subject was to find herbs that have been  traditionally used to encourage and stimulate the intellect and facilitate learning. If there are herbs out there that can create a tranquil oasis of peace and harmony, a place where learning is valued and sought after, well those are the herbs I want. Now I know this is a bit of a tall order but any suggestions greatfully received.