Insect Hotel Wk3 - The Rising!

Often with our work with Gatton, we'll augment the sessions with the students with extra hours to maintain momentum as well as keep us on track. These augmenting sessions usually happen during normal garden hours on a Sunday, 11am to 1pm. So come down if you specifically want to contribute to this project. Send a message via transitiontowntooting@gmail.com

Week 3 saw the Insect Hotel rise-up from raw timbers to an upright structure - a great moment. Luckily, we had a couple of load testers to immediately make sure it was suitable for grubs to climb up!

1. Preparing the ground  

2. Building the frames

The timbers used were the
ones Gatton School had
cut in preceding weeks

3. Laying flag stone foundations

4. There she rises! With two eager 
climbers waiting in the wings

5. Bang on level...

The timbers used to be a fence that passed across the site - a  priority for us is to re-use as much as possible.

The team on the day was Diana (with the level), Gerard (with the sideburns) Benji with the yellow coat and Dominic with the smile! Jenny is on the camera and that's me in the hat!

6. Here come the load testers

Click below to read about how Gatton continued the build...

Week 2 of the Insect Hotel

 On Tuesday 11th November, we enjoyed the second session of our Insect Hotel Project at the Community Garden, with Year 6 from Gatton Primary School in Tooting.

 Each week there is a new group of 10 students from the two classes of Year 6, so it's always good to welcome them to the garden before cracking into our project work. Charlie showed the 4000 yr old flint tool and the sea urchin fossil - found when the original veg beds were dug, only 3 years ago. Come along to witness them yourself.

Can you spot the eco-system Engineer?

It's always good to ask the simple questions for any TTT project we undertake and our schools work is no different.

 So why build an Insect Hotel? This week's group thought it would help the insects, give them protection and shelter and be a place to hibernate - all good, thoughtful points we reflected on for the rest of the session.

Cutting the corner posts for the Hotel

The measure...

...the cut...

 Each group of 3 students figured out how to mark out before cutting. In the session, we completed work on our 4 main supporting posts, made from re-purposed fence posts. 

...success!

  This engages maths, logical  thought and, of course, safe tool  use with every child using the  saw.

 Our group were brilliant -  engaged and enthusiastic  throughout.

St.Bug's Hotel!

Exploring Insect Habitat 

 Each week, we're playing with habitat by making a quick and dirty floor level hotel to inform the habitats we will place in the final structure. This weeks theme was crevices - nooks and crannies to encourage invertebrates and ladybirds - and was mostly built with tiles, twigs and an earth mound for our master ecosystem engineers - the humble worm. 

 So come along to the community garden, see the Insect Hotel emerge and explore the temporary accommodation the students of Gatton are creating! The Garden is open every Sunday, 11am to 1pm at 5 North Drive, Tooting, SW16 1RN.

Construction Begins on the Insect Hotel!

This week we embarked on our next garden-based project with Year 6 students and teachers from Gatton Primary School in Tooting. This follows the Rainwater Catchment and Cold Frame projects of last year, as reported in this blog and on the education page of Issue 6 in the Transition Free Press.

What is an Insect Hotel?

Over the next 7 weeks we will be making an Insect Hotel! Why? This particular project is interesting to us and the school because it turns our attention to creepy crawlies, master pollinators, mini beasts, ecosystem engineers! Essential members of the garden food chain, both up and down!

We'll be encouraging solitary bees, worms, ladybirds, invertebrates, centipedes and millipedes to move in - still doesn't tickle your fancy? How about spiders and wood lice, lacewings and stag beetles not to mention fungi and bacteria. All essential for enhancing biodiversity in the garden as well as the health of our wider ecosystem - something we all need.

It might look like this!

How will we do this? We'll focus on creating the habitats that they love to make a 5 Star, concierged, en suite bug palace. Who wouldn't want to move in!

The project engages carpentry skills, exploration into bug habitats, study into ecosystems, recycling and re-using of materials and will be an ongoing learning resource at the garden.

This first week, our main task was to start cutting the uprights for the structure of the hotel, defining its height. For this, we're re-using fencing timbers donated from our site at 5 North Drive.

You can find out more at Inspiration Green's Insect Hotels article and The Wildlife Trust Building an Insect Hotel Habitat

First Tuesday Food & Seed Swap

Tuesday's food and seed swap event attracted a good crowd and provoked a wide range of food growing discussion. Giles Read reviewed TTT's past Foodivals, talked about plans for Foodival 2010, showed a film and gave away a collection of tools refurbished by inmates at Wandsworth Prison.

The Tools Shed project takes broken tools collected at Neal's Nurseries, a garden centre opposite the prison, and elsewhere, which are then given a new lease of life and returned for use in schools and community gardens.  The project helps prisoners' rehabilitation and also teaches them new skills. 

We also heard about urban growing from Toni Scott of Food Up Front before thronging around the seed swap table to pick up some interesting new seeds to try out.  This correspondent has already planted Borletto and French beans courtesy of Springfields Hospital SHARE garden project.  Thanks to everyone who brought seeds and plants, to Bob Winter at Tools Shed for the tools, which were quickly snapped up, and to Peter at Neal's Nurseries for his discount offer.

The next "First Tuesday" on May 4th will be a Well-being Event with Jenny Griffiths as guest speaker.