School veg plot

[steff]

Hello,
I am going to be running a primary school gardening club on land within the school grounds. Any ideas for what veg I could grow with the children? Need to have impact and crop relatively early.

[mandyballantyne]

Hi Steff,

Welcome to the vine, good to see the kids getting involved. My neighbours kids helped to plant up some seeds earlier this year and we are having a competion to see who can grow the most courgettes. The best bit is that they are eating them! You could still sow salads, late beans etc which should be quick, what about some rainbow chard which will give colour. garlic, onions etc I am sure the other grapes will have some great ideas.

I am just about to put my christmas spuds out and some over wintering cabage, cauli etc.

Have fun, Mandy

[Cutecumber]

Quick stuff (10-12 weeks) includes:

lettuce - loads of types and colours available
beetroot - several different types and colours
radish - just very quick!
young carrots - easy, but not impressive as you don't see the roots until they're pulled.

Swiss chard takes a bit longer but you can get a pack of mixed colours - "rainbow chard"

Calabrese (green broccoli) can mature pretty quickly given good conditions

Remember that you can sow some seed and plant some seedlings to keep their interest in the early days.

[Vegmonkey]

At the school i work at, in Chipping Campden, we grew carrots, radish and lettuce this year. Last year, sunflowers added some lovely colour to the plot. It is very difficult to get much grown as you only really have up until July to get it planted, grown and harvested.

I think next year, we'll start growing much earlier undercover.

Also, a regular gardening club is a bit tricky i find as once planted, apart from watching stuff grow and weeding there isn't much to do. I find, once every couple of weeks is much better. Would love to know how u get on!

[Alice]

I'm sure in the new term you could still plant peas and get something. Even if they don't make it to peas, you can eat the shoots, they taste like peas. Good luck with the project.

I grew these on the windowsill in the winter. It satisfied my itchy planting fingers and gave me a crop from the windowsill.

[heebiejeebie]

What about growing herbs to sell at the school fete if you have one? For instant impact rosemary cuttings root really easily - you could start with a pack from the supermarket in a jar of water then they can see the roots appear before planting in pots.

[SueA]

Hi Steff & welcome. If you're talking about for this year starting in September you might still get time for crops of carrots, radish, spring onions, salad greens & french beans or you could try something more ambitious like leeks, early peas & broad beans which you can over-winter (with a little protection in very cold spells). For next year I'd say courgettes as they are easy to grow & produce lots. Good luck.

[Farmer_Gyles]

giving them something they can take home could be good and agree with the grow things for school fair as well

i've got a couple of thousand spare 1litre pots if anyone wants them - could be ideal for a school project or something like that - pots are strong plastic, red / yellow / green etc