The garden is taking shape!

Our updated garden design

 It's been a little while since our last update, way back in May, but SO much has been happening in the garden since then!

The last post was all about having to delay panting trees until we could actually get spades into the ground - we had had a few weeks of beautiful sunshine if you remember and the ground had been baked hard!  The good new is that over the last few weeks we have been able to replant our lovely saplings all around the garden and all of them have survived, indeed thrived their summer home in pots! 

A beautiful Autumn day for our first Working Party

Trees galore!

We have also had our brilliant new ramp installed to provide access to the garden from the back door.  The design features vegetable beds along each side at a child-friendly height.  I'm sure the staff can't wait to help the children plant them up with courgettes and carrots in the spring!  Our local builder's merchant, Chandlers very generously provided us with all the materials for this ramp, and Bantings did the work at their charitable rate.  So, thank you so much to all of you - we couldn't do this without your help!

The brilliant new ramp and veg beds

Our willow arch is growing well and has had its first "styling" session from master woodsmen Martin and Helen!  They have carefully tied the shoots to make the arch shape and it looks great!

Martin and Helen working on the willow arch

The willow arch really taking shape!

 The digging pit has been dug in and awaits its time to be filled in, ready for eager children to get muddy in!

The tyre diggin pit

Our bug hotels are taking shape too - especially our pallet stack, affectionately known as Bug Towers.  We intend to fill this with all sorts of bits and pieces at the next working party on November 15th, 9.30 - 1pm.  So, if you have any old tiles, air bricks, bamboo sticks, twigs, drainpipes etc, please bring them down.  If you want an idea of what it will look like - head on over here.

The next stage is to pave around the ramp to provide wheelchair access and to dig in the tyres that will become our strawberry beds.  We are also having a small shed constructed and applying for funding to build our pond.

Lisa diggin out the earth ready for our shed

Martin identifying an unknown plant

 It's all very exciting and great fun.  if you would like to be part of the group that's making it happen, please ask at reception how to get involved, either at the working parties, providing materials and plants, or helping us raise the funds we need to finish.  Thanks for your help so far.  Time for a short break - but do join us this saturday if you can.  Also, if you have any plants we could use, please bring them down anytime.  we are looking for cottage garden, woodland and native plants please - but nothing poisonous.  Thank you!

Working Party Tea and treat break

One of our first visitors!

Hold on to your spades!

Due to the drought we've been having, we are going to postpone the digging party this Thursday.  Having been down to the garden this morning to test the ground, I can tell you, it is pretty hard!!!
So, I will keep you posted for another date and in the meantime, pray for a good, long downpour to really soften that soil!

The saplings are all doing well and looking very healthy in their pots and they actually have quite a cosy spot along the back wall of the building.

Spread the word to anyone who is interested to get their spades at the ready soon after the next prolonged spell of rain!  Thanks!

Planting Party! 5th May

Well, the really exciting part is happening now - we get to dig, dig DIG!  The saplings we carefully took out and potted up need re-planting now, and we need your help!  If you are available on THURSDAY 5th MAY from 9am, please come and help us!  Bring a spade or fork and some gardening gloves and be prepared to use muscles you may not have used for a while!  I will bring a plentiful supply of brownies and cups of tea to keep us going!  It should be fun!

In the meantime, although we all love this sunny weather, pray for a bit of rain to soften the ground and help our little trees settle in nicely!

Introducing...our next project!

THE KALEIDOSCOPE NATURE GARDEN!

The mound of earth at the back of the building is already gone and work has begun on our very own Nature garden!  

It was always part of the plan to have a Nature Garden as part of the play and learning opportunities at Kaleidoscope and now that we are settled in, the time has come to get on with the task of creating it!  We want the garden to be as accessable as possible and to this end, we have had to remove a HUGE pile of earth to level the garden with the building.  Simon has skilfully left us the bare bones of the garden shape, which is going to include a water feature for pond dipping and frog spawn,

a digging pit, for discovering lots of lovely worms in, 

lots of bug hotels of various designs, a group seating area for story telling or group show and tell and an orchard of native fruits.

The first part of the garden will be a vegetable plot with child sized raised beds, strawberry planters and maybe even our own compost maker...A miniature 5 bar gate will lead the children through  a "secret" tunnel of living willow and then out into the naturte trail section of the garden beyond.

This is such an exciting project and will bring so much fun and dicovery to the Pre-school.  Children will be able to learn about the changing seasons, how food grows, how to look after plants, what bugs lurk beneath the soil and in the water, what birds visit our gardens and so many other things. 


We are looking for fundraising support for the items in the garden and will also be needing your practical gardening help as the project continues.  Also, if you have any NATIVE plants that you could donate, they would find a very happy home and be most welcome on our very empty (so far) plot!  They do need to be native however, and probably prefering woodland  conditions as we are trying to create an English woodland feel to the garden.


Please watch this space for news about how you can help and how the project is going.  This project is something so special for our children and they will enjoy it for many years to come, so it's worth the hard work we put in now. Thanks!

We're In!

It has been two whole terms since we moved into our lovely new building and things are going really well.  Lady Egremont cut the ribbon back last August and we have gone from strength to strength and recently gained a "Good" Ofsted report, confirming how well the staff team and children have settled into the new space.

We had a brilliant opening celebration and we'd like to thank everyone who came and supported us.  It was a truly special day, attended by so many families, new and old and people from the community, all bringing cakes and treats to help us enjoy the day.

Since that day our numbers have grown steadilly and our new session on a Thursday from 12 - 1.30pm during which the children can enjoy their packed lunch followed by Little Movers is proving increasingly popular. The children love the music, movement and play involved in this time.

I'll leave you with some more photos of our opening day....