West Gate says...

I’ve been watering my sweet peas.

West Gate

Can hardly see my sweet peas, but my tree is growing!  Tree looks good.

West Gate

My sweet peas have grown!

West Gate

Westgate has all its daffodils blooming – they waited for the summer term to show how strong they are!

West Gate

I planted my sweet peas in a good, open spot so they have light to grow and my daffodils look great.  We had poppy seeds to plant and they are very, very tiny.

West Gate

My Birch twig should be good for my sweet peas to grow up!

West Gate

We will be looking after Grounded’s Silver Birch tree and we are pleased it is the tallest in the bunch!  We liked digging our hole for the sweet peas.

West Gate

My Buddleia is special and I wonder how it will turnout.  Its leaves are different to Raife’s Silver Birch tree.  I like my sweet peas

West Gate

I liked the worms more than the sweet peas.  I had to cover all those worms up with sweet pea roots and I had to say goodbye to them.
Caterpillar

West Gate

I’m different, my twig for the sweet peas is a beech twig and is more bendy than the others’ twigs.  My hole was very big but I filled it in well with soil to keep the sweet peas company.
And we planted poppy seeds, they look like what you get on a loaf of bread!

West Gate

The greatest achievement of this year 2022 is that all the Silver Birch trees are still alive after that terrible summer heat and drought.  Not only are they alive but they are prospering and their leaves are strong and falling at the same time as their mother tree, which happens to be very late this year.

You can also see the old plastic bottle which Raife picked up and he put it on a stick he found so that we do not trip up or into a hole into which we have all put our feet one time or another.

The end of this year is so cold and so opposite to the enormous heat in July.  What a year West Gate, well done all of you for looking after your trees. They have responded well to you all and each of them have just about doubled in height!

West Gate

My tree started at 69cms and now it is 114cms tall.  The tree is growing!  It is special.

West Gate

My tree started at 144cms and now it is 214cms tall.  This tree is flipping tall! The diameter at the bottom is 2cms.

West Gate

My tree started 63cms and now it is 117cms tall.  My tree has brown leaves on it at the top and bottom.  There is snow on the leaves at the top and they look really good.

West Gate

My tree started at 60cms and now it is 128cms tall.  My tree has 76 leaves still on it and they have changed from green to yellow and brown. The small stems have buds for leaves next year. Compared to Grounded’s tree mine has a 1cm diameter at its base, which is smaller than his.

West Gate

My Buddleia started at 30cms and now it is 99cms tall.  My Buddleia is bigger than my little Silver Birch, which is 70cms tall. My Buddleia has two stems that are bendy and thin and they are still green.

West Gate

My tree started at 50cms and now it is 112cms tall. It still has 35 leaves in December and some have frost on them, they fall off easily.  I don’t think we need to water the trees because the snow melts into water.

West Gate

There were lots of worms in my hole for the daffodil bulbs and my tree is growing very fast.

West Gate

Sorry Grounded was not at school today but I think the others will tell him all about it and show him where his bulbs are.

West Gate

Raife, I wanted to know whether the roots on the bulbs are the same as our legs.  Do the roots do the same things as our legs?  I learnt that the roots bring water into the plant but they still hold the plant up, like our legs!

Darlik, I wonder what my Buddleia will look like next year.  I enjoyed planting the bulbs.  We want to see how all this turns out.

West Gate

We were shown how to dig a small, straight trench for the bulbs but I wanted a hole in a circle.

West Gate

I liked digging the hole for the daffodil bulbs, it was very squashy.  I made a ball out of some of the clay because it was so sticky and soft.

West Gate

The terrible heatwave in July (with the highest recorded temperature of 40 degrees) prompted me to go to the school in the school holidays to water each of the Silver Birch trees with three buckets of water each.  Now I know how hard the students have worked so far to keep them watered since the little Birch Copse is on the other side of the playing field!  Happily, the Caretaker has said he will continue a weekly watering.  Well done and thank you!
Field Maple

West Gate

The invasive Prickly Sow Thistle in the first picture shows leaves and flowers which the Broad-barred white moth and the Grey Chi moth’s caterpillar feed on.  It is called ‘Sow Thistle’ because female pigs (sows) would seek it out to eat after giving birth to piglets.

The middle picture shows a Cinnabar Caterpillar munching poisonous Ragwort leaves. The caterpillar itself becomes poisonous once it has eaten enough of the leaves to then form a cocoon in which it will live underground before the beautiful deep red and purple moth appears in the spring.

The third picture shows the invasive Ragwort plant in full flower, each plant can produce around 100,000 seeds and so its control is very important.  It is poisonous to all animals that eat hay and will spread very quickly, so the school’s commitment to pull them out whilst in full flower is very wise.
Filed Maple

West Gate

Well done West Gate, all the trees are growing and you have discovered two more baby trees sprouting beside the larger ones.  You have told me that each of you go out to water your tree as often as possible, sometimes once a day.  The results demonstrate how successful you have all been in caring for these small and vulnerable saplings.  It is a tribute to you all and please remember how you have made my poor little orphan trees into strong saplings ready to grow into young trees. Field Maple

West Gate

My tree is still smaller than me, started off at 69cm and now it is 95cm.  I am 133cm tall.  I want my tree to be as tall as Grounded’s tree. My tree has 11 branches growing on it.  I keep on watering it.

West Gate

There are bugs running around the bottom of my tree and you told us they are ants; I wonder where they are living? My tree has grown from 50cm to 90cm and so if it grows 40cm a year I will have a tree 2metres high in 5 years!

West Gate

Some of the leaves on my tree have gone yellow and they don’t look healthy.  But it is has grown high, from 63cm to 86cm now.

West Gate

My Silver Birch is taller than me now, it started smaller than me at 144cm and now it is 179cm, I am 173cm tall. It’s reaching up towards the top of the fence.  I am very pleased because it is looking very healthy and I know because the grass is green and the ground is good (like me!)  We discovered another little tree growing beside it as well and the roots are showing.

West Gate

I have now got a tree and Buddleia to look after.  The small tree suddenly appeared beside Raife’s tree.  The ants live in the soil and we keep watering them.  I want to know if my tree will grow as big as the lamp post?  My Buddleia was 30cm tall and now it is 40cm.

West Gate

There are some holes in some leaves on my tree and I think it is a caterpillar doing that!   We come to water the trees as a team every day if we can and use a handy red bucket to do it.  My tree was 60cm when I planted it and now it is 91cm.

West Gate

My Silver Birch saplings, all self-seeded orphans, have been re-homed!  Well done West Gate! Field Maple

West Gate

I like mud and I dug a hole too deep and so I had to put broken up soil into the hole so the bottom of the twig is at the same level as the ground all around.  I kept giving Caterpillar the worms I found.

West Gate

I like worms. I like bamboo sticks as well and there is one to hold up my little tree.

West Gate

I knew the most important thing for my tree is to make sure it gets lots of water.  I dug my hole really quickly.

West Gate

Darlik
I wonder what the Buddleia is going to look like.  It is sitting very close to Raife’s tree and it is best they are not disturbed.  I didn’t like digging the hole because it was so close to the edge of the slope below.

Raife
I learnt about water tables and how the roots of the tree need to be able to drink the water.  I also know now that the roots won’t like being in too much water and all the clay can keep it wet if it rains a lot

West Gate

Mine was the tallest tree of all, it is 144 cms high.  I found it hard to dig out the soil but with help there was a big enough hole.

West Gate

The plan is to manage this area and plant some Silver Birch saplings and see how they grow!

West Gate