By Cara Clark-Howard
Gardening Guru
The Westlake Girls gardening group has been very busy on planing the next season’s produce. On Friday 19 June, our group met up after school and all walked over to Kings Plant Barn across the road. We had an idea of what we would like to plant, stepping into winter, but were also seeking some professional advice from some of the staff. We then met Sucheta, a staff member, who was extremely helpful and enthusiastic with how she could help us. Not only did she supply us some very fascinating information about what to plant but also introduced us to her manager Cara, who said that she can help us by sending some staff to help us plant our produce and teach us as we go. This was very exciting news for all of us.
On Monday 22 June, our group met up after school to plant all of our new plants and flowers in our garden. We also met up with Sucheta from Plant Barn who came into the school to help us out. Not only did she offer her time but Plant Barn also very generously donated plants to our group and the school. Sucheta taught us a lot about gardening. She told us about seedlings, how to correctly take the plants out of their pots, how large the holes need to be, how much we can fit in one box, when to expect produce, how to attract bees, correct watering times, how to get rid of the snails, fertilizing and more. She taught us lots of key lessons that we will use in the upcoming months and days, as well as gardening in our own homes and in the future. This was extremely helpful and she had our group engaged and learning even on a Friday afternoon! On behalf of our gardening group, I would like to say a big thank you to Sucheta for her time spent helping and teaching, as well as a big thank you to Kings Plant Barn for donating all of the beautiful plants and flowers.
We are all looking forward to seeing our garden grow over the next few months and are very pleased with the process we have made over the year so far. We are also looking forward to seeing more people enjoy the garden, whether that’s by going to have a visit and watering some plants or enjoying the produce.