Gardening

Growing the Community

That exciting time of the year has come around again. Time to start thinking about sowing those seeds in readiness for another exciting growing year. Last year’s failures can be forgotten with lessons learned and the successes remembered with pride and pleasure.
Just remember don’t take it too seriously, have fun, garden with a smile and let the children do the same. At the end of the day it doesn’t matter if you grow the biggest vegetables, leave that to the showers, we are wanting to encourage taking healthy options both in growing and eating the produce. Let the children have the experience of carrying out every step of the process from preparing the ground, sowing the seeds. Don’t stop at them harvesting the produce, let them take it into the school kitchen and help the cook to prepare it – washing the cabbage, peeling the potatoes, shelling the peas and cutting up the carrots. It’s all about teaching them these important life skills that have up to recently been missing in education for far too long.
Have set evenings where parents, carers or grandparents can come into the school and for example make a wooden herb box together. Let them fill it with soil and sow the seeds, or put in the prepared plants. It is surprising how many families have never done things like this together, especially the mothers, aunties or grandmothers.
This is something for them to then take home at the end of the evening to encourage them to cook and eat healthily and maybe start their own growing project at home.
When the families have finished building and planting their boxes maybe you could have for example some home made soup ready inside the school just to give the evening the perfect ending and send everyone home warm and content. If you have the funding available a good idea is to give each family the recipe and ingredients for the soup to take home.
Sessions like this show families how easy and cheap it is to make a healthy meal instead of phoning for a take away and encourage the healthy option. Now we are into March it is time to start thinking about sowing the seeds. Seeds are the most popular and frequently used method of producing new plants. It is fascinating how many differently sized, shaped and textured seeds there are.
I have a good game that I play with children at schools that I visit and work in. You need ten small bottles or doctor’s sample bottles are ideal. Get a wide range of different seeds for example beans, peas, sweetcorn, beetroot, parsnip, carrot, tomato, onions, cabbage and lettuce. These give you a wide range of the different sizes, textures and shapes.
Carefully open the packets and tip the contents of each packet into each bottle. If you can remember what seeds are which that is ideal but otherwise number the bottles and seed packets accordingly from 1 to 10. Just don’t make the number on the bottle visible to the children. If you can remember the seeds you only need to number the seed packets. Ideally the seed packets can then be laminated to give the game long lasting use.
To play the game you just lay the ten seed packets down with the vegetable picture face up.
Give the children the ten bottles of seeds and see how many seeds they can match up correctly with the picture.
This gives them a great fun way of learning about what the different vegetable seeds look like.
With some vegetables for example peas and beans we actually eat the plant’s seeds. With other vegetables we eat different parts of the plant for example stems, leaves or even roots. Even these plants that we eat different parts of still do produce seeds if they are allowed to but usually they are picked and eaten before they form seeds. When a vegetable plant flowers and forms seeds before it is supposed to we call it bolting.
It can be fun to maybe let a few vegetable plants seed for the children to collect the seeds and try to grow them the following season.
Once collected they need to be dried off to remove all traces of water, this stops the seeds germinating before you want them to. Once dried out they need to be put in packets and labeled for future identification.
A fun thing to do is to let the children design and make their own seed packets. They can then give the different vegetable its own personal school named variety. Just remember to then store the seed packets in a dry place away from any mice who would love to bite into these packets and feast on the seeds.
I have mentioned about seeds being so different in size, shape and texture, but they still have lots of things in common and need roughly the same things to grow well.
The first thing the seeds need to make them start growing is water. This water soaks into the seed softening it and starting the growing process. The first thing that starts to grow is the root of what will become the plant. This is the anchor of the plant that holds it into the ground and takes up the water and nutrients from the soil to help make the plant live and grow. Next will come the stem and then its first leaves. These plants grown from the packet of seeds are called seedlings.
Maybe you could plant some bean seeds in a glass or plastic container or jar so the children can watch the growing process. Put some soil in the container then place the seeds up against the sides. Cover with compost making sure you can still see the seed. Then just watch it grow.
Another good idea is to sow cress seed on kitchen roll as these grow really quickly. The speed at which the seedlings grow depends on how much light and warmth they get.
One thing you need to avoid is the seedlings becoming drawn. This is when the seedlings are all so close together that they put all their energy into growing upwards, naturally fighting against one another for the light. To avoid this you need to prick out or pot up the seedlings. Pricking out is replanting the seedlings at intervals of approximately 2 inch in a seed tray which will probably hold approximately 24 plants, obviously depending on its size.
Potting up is when we put each seedling in its own individual pot. The advantage of doing this is that the roots do not have to again be disturbed before it is planted in its final planting position.
The other thing that the seeds need to grow besides water is heat. Different seeds need different amounts of heat to grow or germinate. Some seeds will be happy sown out into the garden in spring when the soil is starting to warm up. Others need to be sown indoors in the warmth and then transplanted outdoors when the outside temperature and soil temperature is much warmer.
The most important thing to do when you buy your packet of seeds is to carefully read the instructions on the packet. It usually tells you if to sow indoors our outdoors. If to cover with soil once sown and what temperature is needed for them to germinate and most importantly when to sow.
The packet also tells you how many seeds it contains. This can vary greatly from a few seeds in packets of cucumbers and tomatoes to hundreds in carrots and turnips.
Maybe you could make your own paper pots to sow your seeds into. These can be made out of old newspapers that would be thrown away or if you are environmentally friendly recycled.
These paper pots can then be planted straight into the ground when the seedlings are ready and you don’t need to disturb the root system as the paper pot will then naturally rot down and disappear.
Once the seedlings start to grow do not over water. This is a big mistake lots of people make. The seedlings like to be kept damp but hate to be too wet. How much water they need depends on if it is a sunny or dull day, thus how warm it is in the greenhouse or classroom.
Plants grown in the greenhouse will start to develop quickly during April and early May. This is where you become a gardener, getting all of the plants ready to be planted out without them becoming too drawn and straggly.
If you have some cold frames, these are ideal for hardening the plants off and slowly adapting them to the big step from greenhouse life to outside life. Basically a cold frame is a box with a plastic or glass lid on. You can leave the lid off during the day and put it back on when there is a risk of frost at night. What stars the members of Haworth Youth Action Group are. Their treat for doing so much brilliant work in the community was a trip to the pantomime at the Alhambra in Bradford. Instead of just thinking about themselves they said they would like to buddy up with older people who were either house bound, lonely or encountering problems. The afternoon was such a great success and shows we have some brilliant, caring teenagers coming through.
The gardening club at Haworth Primary School received some brilliant news over the Christmas period. We attended The Telegraph and Argus Best of Bradford Awards and came away with The Best Schools Community Project which was sponsored by Hallmark Cards. This award gave everyone at the school such a lift and we all felt so proud and honoured to be recognised by our own City.
The cooker has been busy in the cookery room at Haworth Primary School recently. The children have been busy making buns for the bring and buy sale, that along with the non-uniform day raised a magnificent £473 for the Haiti appeal. Our hearts go out to everyone effected by this terrible disaster.

Gardening in Schools Businesses
and the Community
Tel. 01535 647496
Mob. 07969 658743
email. the5thorpes@tiscali.co.uk

Carol Vorderman

Carol's got the Maths Factor

Carol Vorderman launches her online maths school www.themathsfactor.com

Carol Vorderman, Britain’s most famous numbers expert, has launched her new online maths school www.themathsfactor.com this week, the world’s first structured online maths school which teaches children as well as their parents. Here she talks to Northern Life Family about The Maths Factor.
The website is packed with fun things for children to do and they will receive five compulsory maths sessions per week, each lasting from 15 – 20 minutes. Each session includes video lessons from Carol, maths to music (times tables with dancers and rap and rock & roll), interactive games, rewards, feedback and avatars, but it requires plenty of practice using the proper language of maths and its symbols.
Carol says “I am so proud of The Maths Factor. It’s the culmination of years of work so that children and their parents can learn maths in the simplest way possible. Anyone can be good with numbers if they are taught well and they practice, and The Maths Factor will prove it.”
“We have built technology so that children will learn at their own pace, and a love of numbers will be inherent in everything we do. I also explain to parents all of the new numeracy methods taught in schools and tell them every week exactly what their child is about to learn and what games they can play away from the computer.”
“I believe that our Learn The Times Tables course is simply the best available in the world. There really is nothing like it in book form or on the internet. By the end of the package, children will know up to 12 x 12 automatically and the world of mathematics will open up for them.”
“As a Mum, I know how hard it can be for parents to know exactly what to do to encourage children with maths, so we also provide games for each precise piece of learning to print out and play. I simply want all children to be the very best they can be with numbers, arithmetic and mathematics. Please come and try some free sessions to see what I mean.”
Parents need never struggle with maths homework again. In fact, they will start to enjoy it thoroughly; recent surveys have stated that 4 out of 5 parents say that maths homework causes arguments at home. There is also a unique system for parents to automatically reward their children if they complete a certain number of homeworks, which has been developed so that children and parents can learn together.
The aim of www.themathsfactor.com is clear – the development of the child is the priority, as is nurturing their love and understanding of maths.
Parents pay for private maths lessons for their children at prices ranging from £25 to £60 per hour in Central London.
Themathsfactor.com offers excellent maths tutoring 24 hours a day, seven days a week from £10 per month (with an average of £5 per month for the Learn The Times Tables package, depending on the progress of each child).
So for two hours of tutoring PER YEAR in Central London, a parent and child could learn with Carol every day, all year round.
The site will launch with arithmetic and times tables for children from age 4 to 12, quickly rising to cover all maths up to age 16. Themathsfactor.com will add algebra, trigonometry and every other part of maths in a few short months, followed by adult numeracy by the end of the year.
This is the culmination of Carol’s dream to bring excellence and excitement to maths so that everyone can enjoy it. Why? Because she believes it can change a child’s world.
www.themathsfactor.com with Carol Vorderman is available from the first week in March.

Puzzles

COMPACT MOBILITY

COMPACT MOBILITY FROM NEW B400 POWERED WHEELCHAIR

The B400 is the latest addition to Otto Bock Healthcare’s already wide range of high quality power chairs. Compactly designed for ease of inside use, with a width of only 58cm means that the user can negotiate the narrowest of halls, the B400 is also robustly built and, with the power generated by the 73Ah Gel Batteries, has a range of 35 kilometres [approx 22 miles] under normal conditions. With a top speed of 7.2 kph and a turning circle of a mere 80cm [32”] this is a powerful yet manoeuvrable chair. Nor do the advantages stop here for, despite a surprisingly reasonable and affordable price, the B400 offers a number of attractive features fitted as standard that are more often included in the ‘optional extras’ list in power chair brochures. For example the reclining and fully folding backrest enables users to transport the chair with ease, combined with a tension adjustable backrest for comfort and positioning.

As well as extremely useful accessories such as a lap strap, a single battery cover, mud guards to protect against splashing in wet weather or when ‘off-roading’ and powerful electric lights fixed under the arm rests, the B400 also has several features of considerable sophistication. There is a high level of control for the footrests which can be automatically adjusted for length and angle; an option of caster swivel locks on the front wheels help the user gain simple and safe access to elevators or ramps while a kerb-climber attachment allows the chair to negotiate obstacles up to 10cm in height with the utmost ease. The Otto Bock development team has obviously taken a great deal of care to ensure that this new chair will suit virtually all users in comfort.

The simple strong designed steel frame means that the B400 can accommodate people up to 140 kilos in weight [22 stone] and, a low seat height of 40cm [16”] allows its user to slide under tables and desks without any difficulty. Comfort features include a wide variety of supportive seat sizes, and an adjustable reclining back rest. The PG Drive technology control unit is extremely simple to use for speed and direction with push-button controls activating other functions. On the whole, this new Otto Bock chair has plenty to offer. The combination of range, power, manoeuvrability and user comfort that is reasonably priced is remarkable. The sophisticated extras fitted as standard come as a cherry on top of an already attractive cake.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: MRS. GAYNOR NORRIS OTTO BOCK HEALTHCARE PLC, 32 PARSONAGE ROAD, ENGLEFIELD GREEN, EGHAM, SURREY, TW20 0LD. TEL: 01784 744900 FAX: 01784 744929 EMAIL: bockuk@ottobock.com WEB: www.ottobock.co.uk

PRESS RELEASE ISSUED BY: J. WARD TURNER PUBLICITY LTD. WESTERHAM LODGE, WESTERHAM ROAD, KESTON, KENT. BR2 6DA. TEL: 01689 854868 FAX: 01689 860246 EMAIL: pr@wardturner.co.uk

Jane Horrocks talks Fifi

Jane Horrocks is one of Britain’s best known actresses but somehow manages a low-key life outside her work and garners little attention when she is out and about with her family and she admits, that’s exactly how she likes it.

Northern Life Kids managed to catch up with her to talk about her new role.

It was a deliberate decision the petite 44-year-old actress made when she first shot to fame not to cultivate celebrity:” I used to go to parties every now and again and then it became less and less appealing especially as the gossip magazines got more profile. I didn’t want to be part of the circuit. So I did consciously stop.” After a long career spanning TV, film and acclaimed theatre performances, in the last three years, her enduring appeal has extended to the under fives in the hit TV series Fifi and The Flowertots in which she voices both the central character Fifi who lives with her friends in a magical garden and the prim and proper Primrose.

Now a global phenomenon, since it premiered on Five’s Milkshake! And Nick Jr in May 2005, the show was the brainchild of Bob The Builder creator Keith Chapman, and is hitting the road in theatres across the UK for the next year.

We meet for our interview in the recording studios in Soho where Jane is putting the finishing touches to additional voiceover work for the tour before heading off for her family holidays in the Scilly Isles.

She loves working with her fellow voiceover stars and there is a sense of camaraderie with the crew as they prepare the show for its 100-date regional tour which kicked recently and ends in June next year “I’m not surprised Fifi’s been a success,” she says.” When they were talking about a female version of Bob for girls, I thought it would do extremely well and it has. There’s something in it for all kids. The music’s catchy and the animation is beautiful Keith’s a clever guy. But she does appeal to adults too. My dresser on my last theatre job told me Fifi woke her up like an alarm clock every morning. She watched the episode and then went to work. I asked her: Have you got children? And she said: No! It was really sweet.”

Since her breakout role as petulant teenager Nicola in Life Is Sweet, Jane has switched between serious and comedy work with ease – playing scatty P A Bubble in Absolutely Fabulous and Little Voice, the singing prodigy she played on stage and screen that won her Olivier, Bafta and Golden Globe nominations.

Jane’s latest roles have been as a bored housewife embarking on an affair in Jimmy McGovern’s The Street – although she refused to take her clothes off: “I even kept my shoes and socks on. The director just raised an eyebrow!” - and BBC’s The Amazing Mrs Pritchard about a supermarket manageress who became prime minister. More recently she was in the West End in the Alan Ayckbourn farce Absurd Person Singular and starred in the acclaimed Young Vic production of Bertholt Brecht’s The Good Soul of Szechuan which she describes as a career highlight “I loved it. The director Richard Jones was superb and it was one of the best experiences I’d ever had. I’ve enjoyed doing the live work recently and am talking about doing another play.”

She has also voiced the US version of the show: ”I decided that Primrose was a bit of an LA wag type like a character in that movie Mean Girls, where as Fifi’s drawl is Middle America, sweeter and softer,”she explains.

Motherhood is a huge priority with Jane. She took time off to be a mum to Molly,9, and Dylan, now eleven, but insists it was not the eight years that has often been quoted: “It was actually two years. The figure keeps going up! I consciously didn’t work as much when my daughter Molly was young but in fact, I did a whole series of Ab Fab during that time but I was very focused on her. Now they’re much more self-sufficient they’re fine about me working but they do miss me a lot because I’ve been doing a couple of theatre jobs back to back. That’s why voice over work is so handy when you have a family. I’m fortunate I have this other career, you couldn’t manage a family doing theatre alone, you have to have some financial backing.

She smiles when asked what her children make of her: “I think I infuriate them because I’m a Luddite and can’t use a computer. We haven’t got broadband at home. They think I’m a comic mum because they take the mickey out of me permanently and they don’t do anything they’re told! Things have gone downhill since I started to work again.” The children come to see her perfomances: “I had to kiss another actor in The Good Soul Of Szechuan. They were repulsed and looked at my fella as if to say: Poor Dad!” Afterwards, when I asked Dylan what he thought of the play he simply asked: Can you buy the props? I liked that swivel chair. Can I have it for my bedroom?”.

Having loved ones in the audience doesn’t affect her performance but if there is an admired director in the house, she admits she does feel nervous. During intense theatre productions she often sees an acupuncturist to combat any tension.

Earlier this month Jane, who was born in Rawtenstall in Lancashire, received an honorary doctorate from Lancaster University:” I was hugely nervous. I went into the ceremony quite cocky. My mum said: Won’t you be scared? and I was going: Of course not. But when I got up onto the stage to get it, I could hardly speak.”

Jane is a rare breed of actor. Talented and funny but someone who doesn’t take herself too seriously. Her quirky prettiness and uniqueness means she will always be in demand for roles:” HD is the kiss of death for actresses over a certain age because you don’t want everything highlighted! I’m sure a lot of actresses have Botox because of that.

At the end of the interview when asked how it feels to be a national treasure, she laughs in surprise:” That’s very difficult to answer!” Then smiling at the head of production, who is wearing a dress she rather likes: “Now I’m supposed to be a national treasure, I think I deserve that dress. Because national treasures should be able to get what they want!”

Interview from Northern Life Kids issue 13 june/july 08 To order this issue go to the Northern Life online store.

Gardening with Steve

Phew, I don’t know about you but it’s been 100 miles per hour lately for me and the schools and groups that I work with.
We have just about got everything planted out now and all the tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers potted on in the greenhouse.
All the members of the brasica family – the cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts that we planted over a month ago are really starting to fill out.
The first sowing of lettuce are only a couple of weeks from being ready to harvest so we have sown some more to hopefully give us a continuous crop. We have done the same with the radish. Don’t forget to support your peas with netting, twine or some kind of framework once they start getting any size, as they will soon fall over and never seem to stand up properly once this has happened. Sowing can be done at split intervals to hopefully give a regular supply of peas throughout the summer.
I have tried holding some of the cabbage and cauliflower seedlings back after the original pricking out to see if they will be ready any later. This is an experiment as it would be good to have them ready at different times for the children going out and picking them to take into the school kitchen.
Once all the vegetable seedlings have come through that were sown straight into the growing area, they will need thinning out to give each plant its own space to grow and develop. It always seems a shame pulling some of the seedlings out, but I am afraid there is not much alternative. You could always transplant some of the pulled out. seedlings into another row, but they will need watering well to survive.
It’s just a case of finishing putting in all the bedding plants that the children have grown to hopefully give a colourful display at the entrances to the schools. It’s surprising what a difference this makes to the whole feel good factor of the school environment. It cheers up teachers, pupils and parents alike.
The new greenhouse is now up and in full production at Haworth Primary School. It really does look a beautiful thing and will hopefully give lots of pleasure and be a wonderful facility for generations to come.
This project was made possible by Ward Investment funding.
Members of the gardening club have been back to Christa Ackroyd’s to carry on with their work on the Look North vegetable garden. They have made another two raised beds to accommodate the rest of the brasicas family. The kids have taken a real liking to two of her dogs Marmite and Toast.

The reception class have just had a session planting all the pumpkins, I wonder if they can beat the 7 stone one from two years ago? It always fascinates me watching the development of the pumpkins. They don’t seem to get any bigger for weeks and weeks and then all of a sudden they seem to just take off. Don’t forget they need plenty of water and feed, that’s why we plant them on the manure heap.
I recently spent two days at St Mary’s Primary School in Middleton, Leeds, where I worked with every class, including the teachers and hopefully inspired them with my work. They made an outdoor classroom, concreting in all the wooden mushroom seats. These make a wonderful resource for the teachers to take classes out for story time or outdoor curriculum work.
We also made a habitat for insects and mini beasts out of old wooden pallets. They were packed full of grass, stones, old plant pots and pipes and anything else that might make a cosy home. This will also make another wonderful resource for the whole school to use.
I have just carried out a project with the Good Friday club at the church in Crossroads, the next village to Haworth. The children and adults made, filled and planted up four wooden planters which add lots of colour to the area around the village Christmas tree. We had lots of fun and plenty of laughs over the two Friday evening sessions.
Talking about Crossroads, pupils at Lees School which is in Crossroads (if you know what I mean), have been busy putting up a fence and gate in readiness for the new school pond. This has been a brilliant project that each year group has been involved with, from digging the holes and concreting in the posts to nailing on the lats and making the gate. This is the brilliant thing about my work in the schools. The amount of subjects covered and different tools used within this project alone is quite amazing and the effect projects like this have on the children is equally as amazing.
I received quite a surprise or should I say shock while recently attending the Haworth and Worth Valley Rotary Club’s 10th Anniversary dinner. I felt really honoured to be asked to attend the event along with my wife Jackie. But I was presented with a Paul Harris Fellowship in recognition of my work in the community.
This is only the fourth time they have given this award in their 10 year history so I feel really proud that they feel my work deserves such recognition.

Northern Life Kids Crafty Calendar