A lot has happened!

 I can't believe we are already nearing the end of July. The last blog post was in March and so much has happened since then. 

Look at our lovely main lawn.  Students are now independently cutting the lawn and preparing the grounds for the upcoming wedding season.  The students are using a push mower and it certainly gives a really consistent cut.  Lots of manual labour but everyone loves a mow day. 

Our very own Chalk Farm Hotel compost.  The students have sieved the soil from the compost bays on the allotment.  We have been adding to the compost bays with all our plant material waste and has been composting nicely.  


More glorious soil!  This is going to come in handy for filling up the new vegetable beds being made on the allotment.
Our fantastic garden team working hard on the compost bays.

Seeds are coming along nicely.  We started sowing in the mini green houses.  

The polytunnel idea on the allotment finally began back in May with the help of  Maria Godden's family.  The pallet polytunnel has been an absolute fabulous growing space and working area for the students.  We have cucumbers, basil, peppers and many more plants growing in this space already.  
Here are some of the photos taken when this was put together. 




Many weekends later..................

Adding are own compost to the new raised beds.  Students have been learning how to prepare the soil. 


The tomato seedlings have now been planted into our new raised beds.  We also added marigold plants to the bed for companion planting.  Marigolds help deter pests from the tomatoes since as greenfly and blackfly.

We have rose flowers!  The students have been making sure the memory rose garden has been watered in dry spells.  This stunning rose is called 'Rosa - Arthur Bell'.

The hotel gardens are looking stunning and well kept.  With the return of guests to the hotel, students are enjoying the many compliments about the gardens.  One family staying said 'You truly have beautiful gardens here, well done.' 

Great work the garden team - You should be proud of yourselves.

Crop to plate
Finally, we gave the hotel kitchen some red currants from the allotment. The chef prepared a yummy pudding for lunch. Looking forward to giving the hotel kitchen more of our produce soon. 




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