Yippee, I’ve finished school for the summer holidays, that’s 45 WHOLE DAYS of fun; bring it on!

Credit: Photo by Barney Harwood

Whilst I’ve had a bit of chill time, watching back to back episodes of Dr Who and Harry Potter films, I’ve also been busy in the garden and doing my thing as an RHS Ambassador.

School Gardens

There’s been 2 school visits; I literally finished school at 12noon and 3 hours later I popped up at a local primary school’s summer fair, where I held a seed planting stall. I visited this school last year and wrote a blog about it. A lot of the kids remembered me and the best news of the day was when one of the girls said how well her flowers had grown, that she had planted last year – that’s just fab!

A couple of days later I visited Holden Clough Primary School as they had asked me to officially open their new school garden, what an honour!

First up was their assembly, where I gave a very short speech on how I got in to gardening and why I love it so much. The kids that had been involved in the planting then took me outside so I could ‘cut the ribbon’; that’s a new one on me, I was absolutely thrilled to have been asked

Officially opening the school garden

Considering it’s a new garden, they have really cracked on with it and they are reaping the rewards already, with a great summer harvest. I had the honour of digging up the new potatoes and soon those little jewels were making an appearance. I believe they were going to cook them later with some of their fresh mint.

Check out these pumpkins, they’re ‘growing well’ guys!

The garden has been built to attract more wildlife and it seems to have done it’s job; the bees were buzzing and the ladybirds will be full after I spotted some aphids getting a grip of the nasturtiums!

I’d asked my mate to ‘knock together’ a bug hotel – thanks Fred – and I prepped all the pipes, sticks and canes the day before so the kids could help me fill the hotel ready for the bugs to move in. It was nice to give something back as they bought me a box of chocolates and gave me a card – how lovely!

Great to see that they’re members of the RHS Campaign for School Gardening too.

I say to Holden Clough pupils that you’re very lucky, you have a wonderful garden and lovely teachers, who are passionate about gardening, nature, wildlife and the outdoors – thanks for having me and I’ll look forward to seeing it ‘grow well’!

Holden Clough School Garden

RHS Tatton Flower Show

I’d been asked by BBC Radio Manchester to do a short interview at RHS Tatton Flower Show and it was a really great experience. It’s really strange going on the radio ‘cos unlike TV stuff, it’s faceless and you have to describe things really well as the listeners can’t see what you’re looking at.

This is my 3rd Tatton and it was so chilled, it had a great vibe. The show, young designer, school and back to back gardens were EPIC and so inspiring. We also checked out plant heritage, where there was an interesting rare orchid stall from the guys at Chester Zoo – we were there ages chatting to them

I only spent a bit of money this time (unlike RHS Chatsworth); I bought some cactus seeds, planting them straight away when I got home. Within a few days some green has appeared from the seed – if anyone has any tips please comment below

The stuff aimed at kids was great – mini diggers, ferris wheel and the green fields were fab. It was a great flower show, we all really enjoyed it

Over summer I’ll be……

• Visiting the rare cacti, nepenthes and carnivorous plant collection at Chester Zoo – plants at a zoo #SoundsLikeHeaven !!!
• Filming at Hulme Community Garden Centre all about worms – I can’t begin to tell you how exciting this is
• Having the first meeting for my wildlife gardening group
• Harvesting fruit and veg from my own garden
• Going on holiday to The Lakes with my Grandma and Dorset camping with my Mum and Dad
• Turning in to a teenager as I celebrate my 13th Birthday

Have a great summer guys!