Over the next few days, we got to work. We pulled out all the old dead weeds and plants from the flowerbeds. Then we spent hours digging and RAKING, LOOSENING soil and levelling the ground. Then we ploughed and PLANTED our wildflower seeds and watered everything.

We even spread fresh manure on the soil that Finn and Fionn (who are twins in my class, that I really can’t tell apart) got from their dad, who is a farmer and drives a Massey Ferguson tractor.

To be honest, that was totally the WORST part of the entire project because did you know that manure is actually cow poo? Actual REAL POO, from a real cow! And it STINKS. It was so smelly that Big Bow Rebecca fainted. Except Orla, who has two mams who are both doctors, said that it was not technically a faint, just a dramatic swoon to get everyone’s attention, because Big Bow Rebecca was talking the entire time and holding her nose and was never actually unconscious.

And then Finn said that people do actually faint from the fumes of a slurry pit (where they store the cow poo – YUCK!), and Fionn said that what Finn said was true and that he once heard that a dog actually passed out because he was sniffing too near one.

Then Múinteoir Emer, who was suddenly looking all pale, said, ‘STOPAIGÍ!’ so we all stopped talking and then she said, ‘That is quite enough chat about smelly slurry and fainting dogs! Now that all the hard work is done, the only thing we can really do is get back to our regular lessons and wait for the meadow to bloom.’

I waited an entire three days and guess what? Nothing happened.
  Zilch, zero, NADA, not a single little green shoot appeared.

So, I decided I would message my cousin Molly and fill her in on the totally DISASTROUS and DEVASTATING fact that our mini meadow didn’t seem to be growing.