27th March
2019 was a cool spring day, but a good day for sowing seeds. Twenty two
children from a Reception class at a Sydenham primary school came with their
teacher and their teaching assistant to Friends of Mayow Park and help us sow
wild flower seeds in the mini meadow. The aim is to transform this semi-circular
space into a colourful, pollinator-attracting wild flower display this summer
and future years.
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| Scraping away the grass |
Wildflower seeds
don’t like competition from grass so the children scratched the soil and pushed
grasses aside which also helped to rake the soil to a crumbly texture.
The seed packs were
opened so the children could see differing colours and shapes. Colours ranged from light brown to dark brown,
to black and grey. Some seeds were very small while others were larger and easier
to pick out. They varied in shape too, some being round, others more oval.
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| Looking at seed shapes, size and colour |
Mixing the seeds
with sand meant it was easier to see where they would be scattered. In pairs, the
children took small handfuls of the sand/ seed mix and scattered their seeds in
their chosen sowing spot.
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| Sowing seeds mixed with sand |
Watering the
seeds was the final step.
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Watering the seeds
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This activity ended
and the children returned to school. Well done all of you.
It is so
important for children to learn about the right conditions for plants to grow
and practical activities such as this, in outdoor spaces, help them to understand in context. The Friends of Mayow Park hope the children
will visit through the spring and summer to see if their sowing efforts have
been successful.
Over the coming
weeks the seeds will be watered every evening by a volunteer unless there is rain.
With the right conditions, not too much
rain, not too much drying heat from the sun, we should see the first shoots
emerge by mid-April.
