Welcome back to school, I hope everyone had a lovely weekend!
‘Growing Green’ is not only about growing your own plants, although this is a large part of it, but it is also about transforming every part of your life to make it as sustainable as possible, this includes keeping our wildlife thriving. Today’s discussion is ‘Garden Companions’, with a focus on Bee & Insect Hotels.
Photos: 1) By Sian Dorman of a bee hotel in a local park 2) By Ms Spieler of her very own Bee hotel
I have been spotting a number of different bee hotels in my local area recently so I thought I’d share some of my findings in the photos above. These photographs show you different designs you can purchase from any garden centre/garden & hardware store or online.
Bee numbers are falling fast, so by giving them a home you’ll be encouraging nature into your garden and helping the bee population.
As part of the D&T KS3 Curriculum our year 9 students make their own bird and insect houses with Ms Barden within their Resistant Materials rotation.
As part of the D&T KS3 Curriculum our year 9 students make their own bird and insect houses with Ms Barden within their Resistant Materials rotation. The x2 insect houses above are very impressive products made by Year 9 students in Ms Barden’s class last year. These have been made from MDF, Plywood and bamboo, but you yourself can make one from waste items at home using minimal tools and equipment and to any scale your garden can hold!
Next week I hope to share with you a quick and simple way that you can make your own from waste, offcuts and bits found around the home!
Window-Box Growing Updates
Our upcycled scrap wood window boxes that Technician Mr Tao built us have really began to thrive! Here’s a photograph of Ms Spieler tending to the vine tomatoes.
If you’ve been following our weekly Growing Green blog updates then you’ll remember when these babies were first planted in early March by our lovely Year 10 Food & Nutrition students… I posted some photographs of them two weeks into growth not too far back. Look how far they have come!
You can see if you look closely that we have a couple of mini bell-peppers and tomatoes coming through! We have some flowers on our Aubergines and Cucumber but unfortunately they are not providing us with fruit yet. Our basil from before Lockdown-1 is growing tall despite us being away for two separate Lockdowns, working from home.
Check back in next Monday for more! Have a great week.
St Marylebone Art & Design 
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