Rathbone Gardening Project: January and February 2013 - Pots, visits, potatoes and plans!

Busy as usual, but not on the plot - and not many updates here due to some technical difficulties, we are back on track now!

So - the highlights from the January and February unfold as follows;

Trip to Morden Hall Park to get out into nature again and see the river, tree's and wildlife still hanging in over the end of the winter (info here: http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/morden-hall-park/ ) We also brought some seeds and our seed potatoes from the large garden shop at Morden Hall.

Choosing the seeds to buy at Morden Hall

Trip to the Natural History Museum to see the scientists at work in the Darwin Centre, and to find out more about insects, bugs and how they work (info here: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/darwin-centre-visitors/index.html )

At the Darwin Centre in the Natural History Museum

Bugs at the Darwin Centre

Planning what will go where and why! We spent a whole day (with breaks) discussing what we like to eat, what we should grow to sell, and why moving the type of plants from one bed to another each year in a cycle (crop rotation, below) makes plants grow better and more healthy

Thanks to http://aeronvale-allotments.org.uk/basics_preparation.htm for this diagram!

A trip to the Horniman Museum in Forest Hill to see the British Wildlife Photography exhibition on show, and have a look at what they were growing and going to grow in their extensive gardens (more info at http://www.horniman.ac.uk/ )

Drawing our favourite fruit; the leaves and the fruits. A study in the shape and recognition of the plants, to help us to know what to look out for when we are on the allotment and in gardens. Before drawing the fruit, we also had a look at the fruit tree's in the local garden centre.

Taking a look at the fruit tree's in a local garden centre to decide which ones would suit our plot and be the ones the members would like to eat the most...