Scoil Mhuire National School from the Mizen Peninsula have won the Innovation and Creativity Award at the Cork Schools Garden Awards organised by Cork County Federation Muintir na Tire in Association with Cork County Council and Griffins Garden Centre Dripsey.
The beautiful garden at Scoil Mhuire contains many different elements and encompass many of the elements which the competition encourages. All of the classes are involved in different aspects of the garden.
Junior infants planted bluebells, daffodils, snowdrops in containers.
They watched them grow in March and loved the colours. Sixth class helped the junior infants as they planted daisies, poppies, fresia, wallflowers, anemones & avens.
In May they looked out at all the lovely flowers and weeded around them, again with lots of help from sixth class!
First Class took charge of the tubs and enjoyed planting Marigolds, begonias, petunias & pansies and watered and weeded these tubs everyday.
Senior infants had lots of fun taking care of the herb garden. We planted Basil, Parsley, Coriander and Rosemary. They loved weeding and watering their garden and their Mums loved it when they collected bunches of herbs and wrapped them as a gift for Christmas.
In their Nature Diaries, everyday they research and record interesting facts about wildlife all arounds them. They learnt about so many garden birds and animals. They love observing nature all around them. On their Nature Table throughout the year they have collected and labelled leaves, buds and wildflowers. Every season brings a different display. They loved planting Spring bulbs in Autumn and watched their progress outdoors. They watched the life cycle of an egg and hatched out their own little chicks in the classroom for Easter.
In February
Second Class sprouted their potatoes. in early March they planted them in the garden.
They put strawberry plants around the edge of the veggie patch. They sowed seeds of Sunflowers, Pumpkins, Scarlet Runner Beans, Courgettes and Ragged Jack Kale in the classroom.
They looked after them until May and then they planted them in the garden patch. They weed and water their plants regularly.
3rd Class are looking after The Wildlife Garden. They have a Buddleia plant which attracts beautiful butterflies. Last years class sowed marigolds, alyssum and candytuft. These flowers will continue to grow and self-seed every year and they were great flowers for attracting bees and other beneficial insects like ladybirds. This year they sowed another hardy annual seed, cornflowers, These flowers will also attract bees and other insects. In their wildlife garden they also have raspberries, Lady’s Mantle, primroses, bluebells and Spring bulbs which were beautiful earlier in the year.
4th & 5th classes have been busy weeding and replanting the sensory garden.
In this garden they have different plants which represents each of the senses- sight, smell, taste, touch and sound. Each pupil in the class has been involved in weeding the garden and preparing it.
In the classroom they grew marigolds & French and dahlias from seeds.
Here are some plants they have growing in their garden:
Sight: Dahlias, Marigolds, Algerian Ivy, Hosta.
Smell: Lavender
Taste: Nasturtiums, Fennel, Common Sage.
Touch: Lambs Ear
Sound: Variety of grasses (Various heights and colours)
As a whole School every class has adopted a nature diary in which each child in rotation takes this home in the evening to observe, record and illustrate wildlife and nature they see on their route home from School. They are working towards getting their fourth green flag which is for travel, they encourage all pupils to participate in WOW (walk on Wednesday) They have also carried out surveys to establish the need for Zebra crossings, footpaths and other safety needs in the Village. Well done to all.