I've done a search on here to see if anybody has been involved in a school allotment or garden club and I see that Ann Hunter has posted something about it in the past,
There is however very little mention of people getting involved with their children's schools in gardening projects.
I've had a meeting with a couple of the teachers, the headmistress and the caretaker at my children's primary school and the outcome was that we are going to take over an area on the school playing field to grow veg in.
I've booked the rotovator for Monday morning and I intend to get some muck on top of it all, cover it with cardboard and get cracking properly next spring.
Am I on a hiding to nothing do you think? :-\
I'm sure that the children will be keen to get involved and the hope is that it will become self-sufficient when we start selling produce to parents. ;D
There has already been one major bonus in that the caretaker found several 'child-size' hoes and rakes left over from a previous gardening club some 15 years ago.
I'm hoping to beg seeds and any equipment needed from various sources (parents, DontDumpThat, local nurseries etc) and I also intend to keep some sort of a diary on line.
Any suggestions gratefully received!
Good on ya Pete, I'm from, not so Sunny, Rossendale to start with. Have bee exiled in Derby since '84. We got involved with school visits to our allotments when eldest was in Infants, he's now in the 6th form. We have a schools horticultural centre, with a large restored greenhouse and have about 1000 pupil visits a year... (most pupils come three times, to sow runners or sunflowers, to plant out and the harvest)... My secondary school, where I teach has an allotment for the disaffected and a wildlife area in one corner of the school field.
Look forward to hearing how you get on..
;D
HI
We tryed something but it never took off.
I can let you have some seeds PM me your address...
I think you are doing something great BUT this is a lot of work.
Try brining in different groups and segment what your doing otherwise your going to run out of steam
Composting & Wormary - Bring in master composter who can help the kids set that bit up and come and do talks on it etc
Wildlife friendly - try contacting the wildlife trust they can help the kids make bird boxes, hedgehog homes etc which is something done indoors and this can take some pressure off you.
Fruit - Try a local fruit farm who might be able to help set you up ( with trees or just advice ) and this could be a good external trip around apple day next year. You might also try lidl for fruit :-)
Also remember that your going to be having over 100 kids wanting to do something but not 100 jobs that thay can do given time and the kids ages so you might want to have raised beds thats are broken down by year and class ( depending on how much the school want to get involved.
Food - speak to the school dinner ladies and see what sesional gluts they can make more use of. And if they still do home economics mabe there are things they can do there like making there own tomato ketchup that they can have at lunch time so its yummy and practical.
Recording - blog it :-) but remember you can not have any pictures of the kids without written permission of the parents.
good luck
cambourne7
I may have some seed if you put down what you're looking for, otherwise you'll get loads of lettuce, etc, give us your wish list and we'll see what we can do, brilliant idea, lots of luck with it :D
yes a wish list is a great idea...
Perhapse including radish, beatroot, etc
when you do the list try and avoid plants that come to harvest when the schools closed.
You might also want to get hold of a couple of rhubarb crowns?
How much room have you got?
i think its a fab idea! I wish they would do something at my school but i fear i would never get any work done!
My only warning would be leaving stuff in the ground over summer hols... kids/vandals will have a ball decimating the place... as i saw this happened to many school plots over the hols on the news!
I would live to get a gardening club going at my school but time pressures and distance do not mean that it is possible. If I knew I would have sufficient parent interest it might be a goer. Good luck with yours Pete - maybe I should apply for a job at your kid's school at get involved that way ;D Benjie Adlards in Gainsborough have an allotment - it might be worth contacting them :)
Thanks to everybody for your replies:-
Saddad: I know Rossendale well, I worked for a chap in Helmshore for a good number of years. I'm also exiled now in Lincoln. I'll keep you informed of how I get on.
cambourne7: Thanks for the offer of seeds, I haven't got a wish list yet but when I do start one it won't include beans as I've got tons of 'em! I'm well aware of the photo situation re kids (my wife is a social worker). Wildlife Trust is a great idea which I will certainly follow up and I'm going to avoid stuff like sweetcorn (sadly) as it will be ready to pick when there's nobody at the school. The area we've set aside measures 36 feet by 34 feet so there's plenty of room. I'm going to split the area into workable 6 foot by 4 foot raised beds and the 4 'houses' at the school will have a different crop each (or split into roots, brassicas etc).
We don't have school dinners but there is a 'healthy eating' scheme with fruit provided every day so all the apple cores etc can be composted.
The kids are aged from 4 to 11 and there's only 300 of them (only! ::)). If they all want to get involved then I'm going to let the teachers sort out a rota.
I'll keep everybody informed of the progress we make. The job begins at 9.30 tomorrow morning!
wow - good luck!
Sweetcorn isn't such a bad idea Pete, in most years it needs no attention once in the ground and if you sow later than most, or get a slower variety it should ripen mid-sept. when most schools are back... try some of the coloured ones like Bloody Butcher, or the strawberry one for Popcorn... then if it is a bit over when you get back you will have an eye catching start to the new school year!
8)
our committee have started a similar school type project. We dont get so many young children from the primary school across the road as had hoped, but do get quite a few from disabled schools and other areas of the community. (No offence meant to anyone).
They also got a small grant from the local council to start it and even received a small amount of funding from the NATIONAL LOTTERY!! You may be able to get some local builders to offer some free materials or even do some work on the project for free. ie laying small paths or fencing.
To help maintain fencing and large bushes surrounding it and other plots on our site, we regurlarly get help from people who are on Community Service. They dont assist with the children but usually do ok at the tasks given. (They also help clearing overgrown plots that have been derelict to be handed over to newbies) ;)
I am really interested in this subject Pete, thanks for bringing it up. There is a spare piece of land just behind my allotment which is a no-mans land and my OH and and I have got together with the local High School and the Park Warden (there is a large playing field nearby), to hopefully turn it into a community allotment. The school will use it for themselves but also open it up to the community, with perhaps groups like a women's aid or an ethnic group also getting involved. The Park Warden is also getting involved as he would like to have a polytunnel erected on the land too, as we are all interested in developing the playing field area and turning it into a more ornamental space, and not just a place for the cricket team or the footballers to go. We hope that we can be self sufficient with flowers and plants in the new beds by growing the seeds for them in the polytunnel. We hope the children can get involved in this project too.
The school have recently received a grant to build a community sports facility and have money left over they have to use for the community so this would tick some of the boxes for them if they invest in something like this. I am envious that you are going in now to do some practical work on your land Pete, as there seems to be so much red tape at our end, and I am dying to get cracking with it. Please let us know how you get on with things and perhaps show us some pics of your progress.
I saw a really interesting project for younger school children when we visited the Chelsea Physic garden last week when OH and I were on Holiday in London. It was called "shelf life" and tries to give the children an understanding of how food is grown, and how it doesn't just come from a prepackaged plastic container. To do this they plant seeds in the containers you might find on a supermarket shelf; eg. a tomato plant in a plastic soup container or a potato plant in a crisp packet. It also gives rubbish a new lease of life and shows how much packaging is used today. I thought it was a really good idea. :) busy_lizzie
you all amaze me with your willingness to be involved, we had an N.H.S plot on our site that the club got rid of when they wanted to build the club on the plots, very underhand, we had two schools just started coming on to grow things, they got told they had to stop and many other things I won't go in to, all best wishes to you all ;D
Hi Pete,
This is a great idea and I hope you get the support the project deserves. With regard to getting help with the ground work (if you need any!) like ktlawson said, you could get help from people on Community Service, or even groups set up for youths - where I live there is a Princes Trust organisation run by the Fire and Rescue Service and they have young people enrol on a 12 week "Personal Development Programme" and I know that one of the groups helped out at a local school that did exactly what you are hoping to do. They also managed to source a load of materials to do the work as part of the programme. I'm sure there would be something similar in your area.
As for seeds, to add to all the donations that I'm sure you will receive, you could join the school up to the RHS... http://www.rhs.org.uk/Learning/education/schoolscheme.asp (http://www.rhs.org.uk/Learning/education/schoolscheme.asp) Click the link for info.
Also, a few months ago I went on a food growing course for work which was run at Cronkshaw Fold Farm in Helmshore and was aimed at teachers mainly (I'm not a teacher but managed to wangle it with work to get to go!) giving them ideas on how to develop and maintain a school allotment - I might be wrong but I'm pretty sure she said she did days at other venues around the country for people who couldn't get to her farm - if you like I could find out? It was really informative and she gave lots of ideas on how to make the most of space and different projects to do that got all the kids involved.
Anyway, I think it's great that you are taking this on - the school is very lucky to have you on board!
Good luck and keep us posted!
;D
PS. I work in a Community Nutrition team for the NHS - it might be worthwhile finding out if there is one in your area (where are you? I could check) to see if they could get involved at the final stages perhaps getting the kids to cook some of the produce and emphasise the whole idea of where food comes from etc - I only say this because I know that if there was something like it around here I would jump at the chance to be involved!