A letter was distributed last week by my daughters school. It including a mention of wanting more volunteers for their gardening project. Naturally, I was very keen to find out more and immediately contacted the school to offer help.
I visited the school, and, it seems that they have some quite ambitious, but very do-able ideas on creating an allotment style plot. They have already built one raised bed which has been crammed with rocket, beans, carrots and spring onions. They have the space to build a further 8 or 9 raised beds, and lots of space around the school grounds which is currently laid to lawn and unused by the children.
An after school club is being set up which I’d like to help with, and I have provided them with some seeds that need using up this year before they reach their best-before date. I have so many ideas for it, but several are probably too ambitious for the school. Cost also has to be taken into consideration. It was also mentioned several times that the Head Teacher is keen for it to be “tidy”.
One of the projects they are going to start on is planting things in pots. I’ve suggested that they could try growing vegetables in pots. This would be a good exercise for the children since a proportion of the children who attend the school live in the garden-less tower blocks opposite the school grounds. It could show them that you could grow your own vegetables even if you only have a few pots on a balcony.
I also think a project to make a compost heap would be good, encouraging recycling, concern for the environment, and saving money.
Ditto with water butts, and conserving water.
A polytunnel for experimenting with year-round crops.
A mini fruit orchard.
Or, getting the children to design a “Potager” style garden, which would appease the Head Teachers requirement for a “tidy” garden.
I’m very excited about it actually, and I’m quite happy to give up an afternoon a week to help out, and teach others the joys of gardening, and in particular, growing your own food!
Any further suggestions for cost-effective projects would be gratefully received…….
