Creating a Forest (School) out of a Jungle

This was our second visit to St Paul's School's new allotment which they are hoping to use for a combinationof planting and forest school activities. The weeds and brambles had been thriving in the combination of rain and sun over the last few weeks. We had to cut through a neighbouring allotment into the back of the allotment as the gate key was missing but we soon got to work clearing the weeds. Liz, Carl, Paul, Leanne, Pete, Ben and David cleared the roots and weeds out of the main part of the area where the beds are going to be, finding a few bonus spuds along the way. Barbara tackled one corner area and Laura and Ellie tackled another. After realising that they were being thwarted by buried carpet, Laura and Ellie got to work chopping back the brambles tightly wound by bindweed with Pete's help on higher bits and uncovered a water butt and a lot of broken pots. We were heckled by some local kids over the fence who decided we must be some of those "bad people" on Community Service and then proceeded to (unsuccessfully) try and pelt us with green beans. By the end of the task the area looked much clearer. Big congratulations to Ben on his 100th good deed.