Garden

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Latest News

As you know we try to support certain charities throughout the year. One of the charities closest to our hearts is the Irish Cancer Society. Each year Margaret O Halloran does tremendous work in selling daffodils for Daffodil Day. This year as well as daffodils there are beautiful cards for sale nationwide. A pack of ten cards costs €5.

What makes these cards so special to us is that they feature the Knockanean School Daffodil Spiral. This spiral was planted three years ago by the children from Juniors to Sixth class. In all 4,000 bulbs were planted! The spiral shape was dug out by parents from the school. If you are new to the school the spiral is now coming into bloom on the hill at the top of our playing field.

The photograph of the spiral was donated to the Irish Cancer Society by Michelle Severn and her family, who did tremendous work on our garden and spiral over the years. Michelle’s father, Paddy O Hara passed away last summer and he had been cared for by the Daffodil Day Nurses.

We are honoured that the spiral is used as one of the symbols of Daffodil Day. Please try to support this worthy charity. Cards (cost €5 per pack of 10) are on sale from any teacher and all proceeds go to the Irish Cancer Society.

Volunteers

As this is a busy time of year in the Garden, and to help our children get the most out of this brilliant facility at the school, we need just a few more volunteers to help out. No garden knowledge is necessary and you'd never know, you might just discover a new passion for planting!! If you would like to know more, or to volunteer please phone Carrie on 087-6173314.

Work in the Garden

All the children in the school are going to be involved in some aspect of the school garden between now and June. They might be for example sowing seeds, planting up window boxes, growing vegetables or selling bulbs.
In addition we hope to give all the children tours of the school garden so that they can see the plants at various stages of development.
Even some of last years 6th class who are now in secondary school have said they want to return to Knockanean in June to help out in the garden. We are just delighted !
We thought we would give you a snapshot of what we have planned for each of the classes.

Sunflowers, Sunflowers, Sunflowers
Juniors and Seniors sowed over 150 sunflowers last week. They are in trays on the workbench in the garden so if you want to see how they are progressing. We hope to have a fantastic display of sunflowers for September. We are going plant them out in June. When we come back from our summer holidays the sunflowers will hopefully be there to greet us !

Garden Noticeboard / Website

Now that we have a website and a noticeboard in the garden we are hoping that 6th Class are going to help us keep it up to date. We hope they will take some photos of the garden and might even come up with some puzzles or games to help the younger children learn the names of the plants.

June Sale
The garden has been able to finance itself through the funds raised at the June Fun Day.
We hope you will continue to support us.

Spiral Spring Clean
Many thanks to all the volunteers who did a ‘Spring Clean‘ of the spiral at the back of the school.

Vegetables Galore
1st Class are going to grow vegetables in the vegetable patch in the school garden. Last year we had potatoes, onions, carrots and we are hoping for more this year. We might even get to make soup or stew in September.

The Gardeners
There are lots of jobs to be done in the garden such as keeping the weeds down, brushing up paths, planting out seedlings etc. With so many jobs we need two classes to help the garden look its best. Anyone keen to help in 2nd and 5th Class are going to give us a hand in the garden !

Windowboxes Replanted !
3rd class are going to replant the window boxes in April. They will checking to ensure they are watered and the flowers deadheaded. Over the summer they will take them home and return with them in September. 4th class did this last year and it was a big success.

Garden Notelets
We are selling packs of notelets featuring the school garden. Packs are on sale at school; 4 cards for €5. All funds go to the school.

How does the garden grow ?
It grows very well... but the children need a little parental support to coordinate and organise their gardening activities. As a group of volunteers we work for one hour every Friday morning with the children in the garden from February to June.
If you would like to help please contact us

Knockanean National School