Parents Compost-athon, Saturday 6th February 2010.

09.00
A huge truck bearing tons of compost arrived from London Waste.  Troy, Mr. Lanfranchi and myself watched on as Chris the driver unleashed the skip and deposited a hugh pile of steamy compost onto the car park.

London Waste takes the green waste from local London councils and turns it into compost. It’s free to schools, allotments and institutions though you have to pay £50 for delivery. But compared with the commercial costing we did which was several hundred pounds, £50 is a bargain.

By 9.15 nobody had arrived.  The day, though mild, was foggy and gloomy.  It was a Saturday.  Mr. L began to worry. Perhaps no one would turn up. Worry turned to alarm! Visions of Monday morning and the giant heap of compost still there began to haunt him.

09.30
He needn’t have worried.  First to arrive was Mike Wells, an ex-St. Michael’s parent who is something of a school grounds veteran. It was he who organised the first drainage system in the lower field, and it was he who began to form the new road down the side of the school that has brought so much financial benefit to the school over the years.

Mike is a man who likes mechanical things and while other parents dutifully brought wheelbarrows and spades as requested, Mike had the forethought to bring a rotivator.

10.00
By now many parents and their children had arrived and Mr. L. and Troy both had big smiles of relief on their faces.  We set to work in teams with some parents digging, others humping the manure into wheelbarrows and others wheeling the barrows down to the terraces.

10.30
Mike and Troy took it in turns to rotivated the ground below the terraces as well as some of the difficult areas of the terraces. Whoever wasn’t rotivating drove down several buckets of compost at once in his tractor, making the job faster and less tiring for everyone.

11.00
I rather incompetently failed to turn the water urn on properly so when tea break time came, despite the cafetières, the plentiful supply of tea and biscuits, coffee and hot chocolate, there was no hot water. So Lily and Nat were despatched to Costa Coffee for a job-lot of lattes to satisfy everyone’s caffeine craving. It was pretty impressive to watch the way they organised everyone’s order. (You can see the next generation of managers in the making!)

11.30
A quick cuppa, and back to work. By now, everyone was stuck in to the job – whatever their age. Little Oliver was determined to be one of the team, wheeling down compost in his mini-wheelbarrow, while another St. Michaels veteran, Denis Herbstein, founder of the football club, dug over the newt pond area – when he wasn’t passing the day chatting to Mr. Lanfranchi.

12.00
The end was in site. Troy washed down the carpark while everyone else worked to neaten up the terraces, raking the tops to smooth them, lifting the soil from the edges and sweeping the paths.  The finished terraces looked spectacular. 

So, many, many thanks to Kate Waine and Marion Manheimer who dragooned people into giving up their Saturday and to all those who turned up:  Aleisha, Garth, Nick, Nicola, Marion, Simon, Catharine, Jo, Tony, Denis, Dan Dan and Nat and not forgetting little Oliver, and the many others who gave up their time to help out -- I’m just sorry I didn’t get all your names.  And last, but by no means least, my thanks to Troy and Mr. L without whom none of this would have been possible.

Any parents interested in helping out with the gardening club – particularly if you have knowledge of vegetable growing – please get in touch:  patriciawalby@hotmail.com