Advice needed please

[original 10]

hi was wondering if anyone could give me advice on gardening please.I am starting a project with pupils from school to maintain the gardens and build a allotment.Trouble is im fairly new to this we aim to get the kids growing our own produce as well as flowers etc. The garden does have a veg patch but has been neglected over the months!! Were do i start ? also what are the best things to buy now to plant and pot as i really want this project to take off.My other aim is to show the children how hard it can be to maintain a garden and hopefully get them on the healthy eating course as well

[Hayley1 10]

good on you, my lad never ate any veg until we grew some. Once he'd spent all that time waiting for it to grow he couldn't wait to harvest and eat it!

[Pednbrose 10]

Have a look at http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardenersworld. You'll get lots of good ideas on there. Good luck with your project. Nothing like the taste of home grown food.

[JoeP 11]

Sounds like a great idea, original.

 

As I'm incapable of growing anything but weeds and that horrible viney stuff with thorns on that gets everywhere, I can't realy offer anything except best wishes!

[RobD1 10]

See if you can get in touch with any other schools who have done something similar. Westways and Broomhill schools round this way have gardens,

 

Rob

[viking 10]

A good start would to get shool funds to buy a book called: The vegetable & herb expert. (By D.G.Hessayon).

 

This book retails around £7 and it's colour illustrations and advice tell you everything you will need to know.

 

Most good garden centre's will have it, OH, and good luck.

[Tracie 10]

Hi original - this is a great idea! My mum teaches Food Tech at a school in London and she has an allotment that her pupils help care for. The produce they grow is also used in some of their cookery lessons - it's a great way to get pupils interested in where their food comes from!

 

The book viking recommends is excellent, I have a copy and it certainly does cover everything you need to know about growing fruit and veggies.

 

If the plot is very overgrown, I would suggest splitting it into sections and just clearing one of them. The rest of the plot you can cover with a tarpaulin or some old bits of carpet, that'll help slow the weed growth down until you can clear that part of the plot or - if you can leave it covered for a year or so - most of the weeds covered will just die off. Once you are ready to clear part of the vegetable patch, use a spade to take off the top layer of grass / weeds (make sure you get the deep rooted ones right out!) and then go back and dig it over. It's hard work, but I'm sure some of the pupils will get stuck in and if you ask, some of the parents are bound to come along and help out too!

 

You can plant garlic and onions this time of year - these will overwinter and be ready spring / summer next year. I'd get hold of some seed catalogues or gardening magazines and let the pupils look through these and decide what they would like to plant - you'll need to plan out how you are going to use the space you have and it might help keep the pupils interested until next spring (the main planting season)!

 

Good luck with the project - let us know how you get on!

[mc55 10]

it would be good to start a wildlife pond (maybe with a covering depending on the children's ages) - this would be an ideal time to get it prepared, in antcipation of spring.

 

If you can get hold of some willow you could encourage the children to make some sculptures and frames / arches / wigwams.

 

Other 'winter jobs' could be starting your compost area and leaf mould collection (perfect timing). I can send you some easy plans for a cold frame if you want to try and build one.

 

Maybe the parents could provide pumpkins and you could have a pumpkin carving competition as an intro to growing their own next year.

 

Get the kids to start collecting things like the insides of toilet rolls / kitchen rolls (for growing sweetpeas in) and other useful tubs / containers / bits & bobs. Also, they could be making paper pots in anticipation of the sowing season - I can send you instructions if you are interested (once you've got the knack they're pretty easy) - free and really good (I use these on my allotment).

 

Get in touch with the council, they have some rangers who may be able to assist with clearing the land / making it safe etc. They may even give you the site for free as its to do with education - worth asking.