Drumgallagh N.S: February 2017

Friday, 10 February 2017

Nesting Boxes

Nesting Boxes

We are trying to encourage birds to nest in the area so we erected five nesting boxes in the school grounds. Each box is allocated to a group of children to monitor.

This ties in with the Biodiversity theme of the Green Schools Programme which we are doing at the moment.

Brendan came and helped the 6th class boys to erect the boxes

A past pupil made 2 of the boxes out of hollowed tree trunks

Operation Transformation 10@10

The Junior Room with our Transition Year Student Ann

Senior Room playing football with Pat and Junior Room playing basketball with Ann

Thursday, 9 February 2017

Planting Butterfly Bushes

Biodiversity Theme

Planting Buddleja (Butterfly Bushes)

Information on Butterfly-bush

Common Name:	Butterfly-bush
Scientific Name:	*Buddleja davidii*
Irish Name:	Tor an fhéileacáin

We are interested in attracting Butterflies into our school garden, and so we have planted 3 Buddleja.They only require to be pruned hard in Spring.

Buddleja was named after seventeenth century English rector and botanist, Rev Adam Buddle.

This is a perennial shrub which seems to grow just about anywhere – waste ground, embankments, even on the rooftops of old or derelict buildings and, of course, in the gardens of those wishing to encourage and admire Butterflies. It's a loose, lanky shrub which branches from ground level. From June to September it carries long, conical spikes of 4-lobed pinkish-mauve flowers (3-4mm across) which have a small orange 'eye' and which are heavily scented. Its lanceolate, opposite leaves are grey-green and the arching stems are light coloured, appearing somewhat cracked. This shrub can reach a height of 4 metres. It is not a native but an introduction from China and it belongs to the family Buddlejaceae.

We placed some compost in the ground to give the bushes a good start. We are hoping that lots of butterflies will visit our school garden this Summer.