School Garden

smitty2702 · 28 March 2009 at 10:20AM

Hi all

I have become involved in sorting out my childrens school garden, at present its all lawned with beds round the school with pretty much weeds in plus a few bulbs. We have dug a vegetable plot, and have 2 raised beds, 1 for herbs and the other for strawberries, have got a bird table and a mini greenhouse and are planning to make a start next week with a planting and activity day for the children and parents. Is anyone here involved with their schools garden, what works well? what will grow in time for the summer hols break up? has anyone done any garden activites that would work well with about 55 children? What should we do in wet weather?

How do you raise funds to maintain the garden? or to get new things? we have thought of raffling off a hamper of veg, and selling surplus tomato plants although have heard we may not be able to grow them as someone said the leaves are poisonous. can anyone confirm? does anyone have any other ideas? they can't be anything too big as the PTA already do a fair few events and won't have time to do much more.

Longer term, what else is good in a school garden? how hard is it to do a wildlife area? we have an overgrown pond? where do we start with revamping it?

thanks

HariboJunkie · 28 March 2009 at 10:47AM

Hi Smitty :hello:

The first thing you need to do is look at The RHS Campaign for School gardening where you will get lots of advice and some freebies.
Another good site is Growing Schools. Both are fantastic resources.

Are you planning on running a gardening club or will it just be used in curriculum activities?

What you have done so far is great. I would get together with the children to ask what they want to include in their garden.

In your veg beds you will need to grow fast growing things like salad, radish, herbs and speedy carrots etc so that they can take some of the produce home before the summer. Otherwise, grow things in pots like strawberries, sunflowers and tomatoes so they can take their own home at the end of term.

Potatoes grown on old tyres would work well. The tyres can be scrounged from your local quick fit.

If you plant maincrop seed potatoes soon, they will be ready to pick when the children return after the summer.

Also plant pumpkins so that they will be ready for a carving competition at halloween.

There is lots of advice out there for creating a wildlife area.

Link

Link

Link

The very basics are hanging bird feeders, creating a small pond (and make it very safe) and log piles. Plant and area of wild flowers to attract butterflies and bees. get some free seeds from here.

Join your local freecycle group and beg for old gardening equipment. I was inundated with seed trays, old magazines, pots and seeds and even an offer of a school trip to a garden centre when I made a polite request.

Moneywise, you could sell young plants that you have grown from seed and that are surplus to requirements. There are also lots of grants available if you search. It is also a good idea to ask for sponsorship form your local garden centre. You could issue a garden related word search and charge for it, giving a small prize donated by a kind local business. Or a raffle.

Good activities to think about are cometitions, ie. biggest sunflower, biggest pumpkin.

Good rainy day activities include painting terracotta pots, making shell windchimes and even painting posters to promote your club.

It will be great fun for you all so good luck and well done for getting involved. :T

HampshireSeagulls · 28 March 2009 at 11:37AM

Excellent post above. I run the school gardening club, but I found that growing veg held no attraction for them at all, they don't want to wait to cook anything! We have some basics - strawberries, tomatoes, and we have planted some sunflowers, but we now focus on an eco-garden with a pond, "overgrown" area, animal habitats, etc. It's used by the maths club and science lessons are quite often based around this area (minibeasts, habitats, keys). Maths lessons are handy because they can survey the area and produce charts and graphs, etc.

Try to get local business involved. We have a real problem with them saying that they simply cannot afford to donate stuff now, so we have gone to the local council with their gardening department, and they support us quite nicely!

dexyblue · 29 March 2009 at 4:30PM

Hi haribo Junkie, I help with a gardening clug for 7-11 year olds at my local school and it would be great to give this idea a go

Potatoes grown on old tyres would work well. The tyres can be scrounged from your local quick fit.

If you plant maincrop seed potatoes soon, they will be ready to pick when the children return after the summer.

Can you give me a few pointers please, do I stack tyres on top of each other or what?

angelavdavis · 29 March 2009 at 5:34PM

Tips here and here on growing potatoes in tyres.

I ran a gardening club at a local primary school a few years ago. I begged tools and seeds/plants from freecycle and got an excellent response.

HariboJunkie · 29 March 2009 at 6:57PM

dexyblue wrote: »

Hi haribo Junkie, I help with a gardening clug for 7-11 year olds at my local school and it would be great to give this idea a go

Potatoes grown on old tyres would work well. The tyres can be scrounged from your local quick fit. If you plant maincrop seed potatoes soon, they will be ready to pick when the children return after the summer.

Can you give me a few pointers please, do I stack tyres on top of each other or what?

Hi Dexyblue

There's a step by step guide with photos HERE.

Oops... Sorry Angela, I missed your post.

loki13 · 29 March 2009 at 8:04PM

I work in secondary, but we raise money buy selling half our produce - kids keep half, we sell the rest to staff. Gardening club grow from seeds and at any open event can bee found selling chilli plants, lillies, and tomato plants. We just about cover costs (most of our profits come from the meat we produce on the school farm).

We have just planted maincrop potatoes, and are about to plant beans, peas, onions, salad greens, carrots, cucumbers, and many others (I just plant what I'm told)

School Garden

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