gardening club advice

[gan heather]

I have recently volunteered to start a gardening club at the school I work in. It will involve a small group of children between the ages of 9-11. The spot we're allowed to use is a fenced-in area in the middle of the playground (so the other children will be able to see and admire, but not touch!) and we'll have to use containers (the ground is concrete). I'm looking to grow a mix of vegetables and flowers. The requirements are: they have to be relatively easy (I don't want to discourage young gardeners), grow well in containers, and have matured by the end of July (when we break up for the summer).

So...what would you grow? Give me some ideas, please, so I can make this project a success and give the children a good experience.

[zazen999]

Join the Food For Life Partnership - you get a set of growing cards; a manual with lots of posters and a DVD with loads of different activities that you can use when setting your club up. It is free

Garden Organic resources for schools

Also, think about crops that will mature over the summer and be ready in the autumn, such as beans for drying and squashes; as well as quick growing ones such as spring onions, lettuces, spinach, radish, early potatoes that will be ready before the hols.

[gan heather]

Thanks for the link! Very helpful.

The problem with plants that mature in the Autumn is August - nobody (except maybe the caretaker who will certainly not be open to adding another job to his list) is around for a month. So there will be nobody to care for the plants during all of that time.

[zazen999]

Gan, can any of the parents get these containers home? Back of a van jobbie????

[gan heather]

Possibly...but one of the reasons I asked to start this project was because I know many of these children live in flats and have had virtually no exposure to growing their own fruits and vegetables. For things that are still going strong come the end of July I'll certainly try to find families willing and able to take them (or take them to my plot if it seems worth it), but I'd like most of the things we grow to have peaked by then. So I'm thinking radishes, peas, early potatoes, and early carrots to start. But maybe there are other things I'm not thinking of and I don't have much experience with growing flowers to know where to start.

[taff]

spring onions, lettuce, brocolli raab, saltwort, spinach/beet spinach.
that's it, too brain dead to think now

[Jeanied]

Don't forget the strawberries! And how about tomatoes?

[gan heather]

Don't forget the strawberries! And how about tomatoes?

Are there any types of tomatoes that will be ripe by the end of July? I grew tomatoes with children last year (different school and different circumstances) and there was loads of fruit, but the children didn't get a single tomato! I took the plants home at the end of term and was eating cherry tomatoes for all of August. Great for me, but not them!

Thanks for the strawberry idea!

[zazen999]

If you start early toms off early enough, and stop them after the second set of flowers then you might just get a crop for them.

[Jeanied]

Are there any types of tomatoes that will be ripe by the end of July? I grew tomatoes with children last year (different school and different circumstances) and there was loads of fruit, but the children didn't get a single tomato! I took the plants home at the end of term and was eating cherry tomatoes for all of August. Great for me, but not them!

Thanks for the strawberry idea!

How about putting the toms in hanging baskets - which can be rotated into greenhouses etc at weekends - maybe a bit of a faff but someone may be willing to do it and that'll speed them up!
If you want to experiment with tomato gartenpearl seeds let me know!

[Twinkle]

Hiya GH
I do a similar activity here - the kids break up for summer at the end of June so we gear all the gardening around that.
We grow

- first early potatoes in old compost sacks (start them off in the shed/greenhouse then move them out when risk of frost is past). This year we've divided the kids into teams, given them one sack and one spud each - winning team is the one with the highest yield by weight

- early carrots
- early peas
- a few onions/garlic/shallots, mainly as companion planting to keep the carrot fly away though
- salad leaves/spinach
- strawberries
- pumpkins (prize for biggest, or harvest for carving at Hallowe'en)

Wrote off tomatoes as they came too late during the summer holidays

We also do tallest sunflower

This year planning to start winter cabbage/cauli/sprouts in modules in April/May and either keep them in pots over the summer break and plant out in September for over winter, or plant them out the final week of school (yeah...wishful thinking).

[northepaul]

I wanted to do this for our local school, but they have decided this year that a gardening club is too much hassle and are not bothering

[Twinkle]

I wanted to do this for our local school, but they have decided this year that a gardening club is too much hassle and are not bothering

miserable gits
I sold it on the fact that it's not just about gardening - it's about biology, maths (or is it called numeracy now ), art (painting signs for the garden).
Luckily I'm allowed in during school time and we make it integrate into the curriculum as much as possible.

examples - for the older kids - price of seeds and potting compost then selling the small plants on for profit - % profit etc...

Phototropism - making plants grow all bendy

Younger kids - weighing and measuring things - plotting graphs of how the circumference of a pumpkin/height of a sunflower increases vs time.

Plus nutrition and food-miles - we have a day at the end of term where we cook/eat all the produce and the parents are all invited.

Saw in an American book once where they did a "grow your own pizza" garden - tomatoes/basil/spinach/sweetcorn etc etc.... which would be phenomenal, but we fail on the tomatoes due to our long summer holidays.

Can't you keep nagging northepaul ??

[Ja9]

if you want some free seeds try the BBC website or one of the RHS garden shows. I got loads of packets of veg seeds from the "dig in" campain for our school gardening club last year.

[northepaul]

miserable gits
I sold it on the fact that it's not just about gardening - it's about biology, maths (or is it called numeracy now ), art (painting signs for the garden).
Luckily I'm allowed in during school time and we make it integrate into the curriculum as much as possible.

examples - for the older kids - price of seeds and potting compost then selling the small plants on for profit - % profit etc...

Phototropism - making plants grow all bendy

Younger kids - weighing and measuring things - plotting graphs of how the circumference of a pumpkin/height of a sunflower increases vs time.

Plus nutrition and food-miles - we have a day at the end of term where we cook/eat all the produce and the parents are all invited.

Saw in an American book once where they did a "grow your own pizza" garden - tomatoes/basil/spinach/sweetcorn etc etc.... which would be phenomenal, but we fail on the tomatoes due to our long summer holidays.

Can't you keep nagging northepaul ??

Never say never, thanks for the encouragement
I was trying to get them to do a free (to kids) plant your own seed at the summer fayre this year too. Ie get old cup or pot (they go through loads of plastic cups) bag compost and some seeds, yet each kid to pick a seed fill cup with compost and plant it, take it home....they think it might be a bit messy!!