Tulips

Photo taken 2010

When Ms Wynne retired as principal of our school we planted a cherry blossom tree and underplanted with snowdrops and tulips.  The snowdrops flowered and are finished for this year.  The tulips are flowering now.  They have increased in number.  An interesting fact about tulips is that they open and close each day.  Also on a sunny day they will open and on a wet cold day they stay closed.

Photo taken 2011

NOTE how many more tulips there are in this years photo.

Tulips open in the sunshine.  This makes it possible for bees to pollinate the flowers this involves the transfer of pollen from the anthers of one flowers to the pistil of another, the pollen germinates and produces a pollen tube which grows down to the ovule where fertilisation occurs.  Bees cross pollinate flowers and this increases the genetic diversity of plants.

Watch out for the tulips opening and closing.  Watch out for other flowers opening and closing. 

CAN YOU IDENTIFY ANY OTHER FLOWERS THAT OPEN AND CLOSE EACH DAY.

Junior and Senior infants- HORSE CHESTNUT

Junior and senior infants are studying the horse chestnut.  The trees in the grounds have started to open their buds, the are the first trees to come into leaf.  Notice the sticky buds and the green slightly furry leaves starting to expand.  The leaves are quite small at the moment but will get bigger over the next week or so.  Watch out for the flowers later on in the year.  These produce the horse chestnuts or "conkers".

Robin Readbreast

I spotted this robin in the grounds.  Although a robin is called "redbreast" look closely, it actually has a red face and forhead as well.  The male and female robin are identical, they perch and watch me digging and when they see a worm, centepied, or small insect they pounce on it. They are territorial and when you see two robins together they are a pair and usually nesting close by.  They build in dense ivy, holes or open fronted nest boxes.  The nest is built by the female and four to six sky blue eggs are incubated by her.  The young are fed by both parents and leave the nest after about two weeks.  If you spot a robin with a beak full of worms it it bringing them to feed the nestlings. When the nestlings leave the nest they are brown with yellow-brown spotted head and chest.  It is at this stage that you can hand feed the bird, if a young bird gets used to hand feeding it will come back every day to be fed and will perch on your hand to eat. We have young robins in the garden every year.

The robin has a loud singing voice and can be seen high up in the branches singing to mark out its territory.

Can you name the tree it is perched in.  (HINT, black buds and hurleys are made from its wood).

Fossils and rocks

There are three different groups of rocks,
IGNEOUS, the material from which igneous rocks form is the magma, the viscous molten material from the centre of the Earth.  If this fluid magmatic material penetrates into the lower parts of the Earth's crust and cools slowly rocks such as GRANITE are formed.  If the magma pours out directly onto the Earth's surface volcanic rocks form, as it cools relatively quickly.


Volcanic Rock



Different colours of Granite rock

 

SEDIMENTARY, these rocks are formed from a mixture of the weathered debris of igneous, metamorphic and older sedimentary rocks. They are so mixed together that a new type of rock is formed. This takes place over many millions of years and a feature of these rocks is that they contain fossils of plants and animals. LIMESTONE is an example.

The white marks are the fossils

METAMORPHIC, metamorphic means change, and this is just what happens with these rocks, they are igneous and sedimentary rocks which under the influence of high pressure and high temperature change into a completely new rock.  MARBLE is an example of such a rock. This change can happen due to the movement of tectonic plates or when magma forces itself into parts of the earths crust. 

Daffodils in the garden

The daffodils are in full flower in the school grounds.  Daffodils grow from a bulb, the embronic flower is stored in the bulb all winter and grows together with the leaves in spring. After the flower dies and produces seeds the leaves continue to grow and produce food which is stored in the bulb and they also produce energy which is used to form the flower for next year......

Daffodils were origionally plain yellow and grew in the wild.  Plant breeders selected the best of these and cross bred them to produce various colours, shapes and sizes.  Here are just a few of the different types we have growing in the school grounds.  When you are out in the grounds see how many you can spot. FIRST AND SECOND CLASS PLANTED DAFFODIL BULBS LAST OCTOBER.

Gardening Club/Incredible Edibles

Its nearly time to start planting our vegetables in the garden as part of the Incredible Edibles, I will be planting seeds with every class in the school, from Montessorii class to Sixth. Here you can see the Gardening Club (the Garden Gnomes) doing all the hard work preparing planting areas for the different classes.  Every class will have their own plot with their class and name so everyone can show their parents what is growing. I would love to speak to parents or students from other countries with a view to trying to grow fruit or vegetables from their countries.

The Willow Tree

LOOK UP when you pass the willow tree on the way into the school, it has just started to flower and has a huge number of Bumble bees, (the fat black and yellow ones) and honey bees (the smaller brown ones). This is great news as bee numbers have been declining over the last few years. The willow is the earliest tree to flower and produce pollen suitable for bees.

The bulbs planted by the children in October are all at the front door of the school for all to enjoy, these will be planted under the trees in the woodland when they have finished flowering and will bloom every year in Spring. Here you can see last years bulbs planted by the Gardening Club in full bloom

Spring in the School Garden

 Welcome to the school garden blog, I will be posting things to watch out for over the next few days, I hope you will follow me and keep your eyes open in the grounds.  You will be amazed at what you will see..... This is the new bug hotel, where insects will hibernate.