Thursday 12th September 2024

It was lovely to have our numbers back up to normal this Thursday and it also meant the children from last week could explain what they had been doing.  It is amazing what you can measure just with your senses and no scientific equipment. We felt how light and brittle the different seedheads were and we revisited how they spread themselves-on the wind, via animals and also through humans-deliberate planting.  To that end, in pairs the children planted some seeds I had brought from home and from the nature area: dock, foxglove and honesty.  Fortunately, they all prefer to be sown on the surface of the soil and tolerate shade.  After selecting a spot and watering them in we talked about each in turn.  They were most familiar with the dock, but were amazed (after all their guesses) that one dock plant can produce up to 60,000 seeds which can survive in the soil for up to 50 years!   Eagle-eyed Lucas spotted some flower seeds I had planted last year-purple Asters.  Then, when planting his seeds he discovered some black stones on the surface of the soil.  We just had enough time to look at how hard they were-they didn’t leave any marks-and they were water-resistant.  Will report back next time on what we discovered.