School gardening club - anyone run one?

[OgreTripletsAreSoCute]

We've had some raised beds installed at my DCs' primary school and are launching a gardening club after half term, so just planning the activities for the next few months.

Wondered if anyone else was involved in running one? I'd be interested to hear how you run it, any tips and ideas, any experience at all really! Thanks.

[ljb11]

Have helped in several areas of school garden. Get the book "The playground potting shed" by a guy who ran school garden club. Good for lots of tips inc what to grow that will mature during the school year (that's the hardest bit I think). I did it one year with reception and they had a day at the end of term where we harvested loads, prepared salads, cooked courgettesm, did new potatoes, green beans etc and then ate it all.

[ljb11]

If I were you I'd grow spares of things just in case, ie extra seedlings that you keep at home just in case. The guy who wrote the above book did salad leaves with his lot that they sold in bags at hometime.

[Elk]

I am not involved with the dd's school gardening club but I do know they are linked to the RHS and get information from them. They also got some tools this year.
They have a little garden and plant vegetables and flowers. In the winter they rake up leaves and do general tidying and have also planted cacti and other indoor plants in pots.

[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes]

Hello, sorry for not replying for so long, this dropped off the bottom of threads I'm on and I forgot to come back and check.

Thank you for your suggestions, I found the Playground Potting Shed on Amazon ljb11 and you are right it is very useful.

We got started about 3 weeks ago, the only problem being is that the school recruited so many keen gardeners that we are struggling to find enough for them all to do! We have four raised beds which we are starting to fill, and have got pots with seeds in on the windowsills, and have started looking at tubs and planters around the school. One of our parent volunteers grows masses of stuff for her allotment and will provide some back up in case of crop failure.

Indoor plants is a good idea for the winter Elk, or for wet days (we have a playground with a roof over part of it so we can go under there and work).

[EcoLady]

I run one. With another parent helper and a TA who is the one-to-one support for one member, we manage 12 children max, though 8 or 9 is far easier. "What do I do now?" every 30 seconds is tough when there are too many!

Do you have a good, long, thorough, Risk Assessment?

Spuds in containers
Sweetcorn is brilliant!
Spinach
All root veg (something particularly good about revealing these from the earth)
Radish for speed
Lettuce & mixed leaves
Leeks
herb plot
Tomatoes, courgettes, etc, only if there are staff willing to ensure daily watering
Flowers around the school - summer bulbs can start to go in then plant spring bulbs in autumn term
Sunflowers

Get compost bins going too.

These are SUPERB for starting off seedlings and for early salad leaves!

An excellent site

Good luck!

[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes]

Hi Ecolady,

We are running with a pool of 5 parents and 2 teachers (we run two groups each week, a KS1 and a KS2 group, so one teacher for each group, each group has half an hour of lunchtime while the other half has lunch. 10 in each group. We've found that it we can split the 10 into say a 6 and a 4 and do 2 different things slightly away from each other it is a lot easier, so maybe one lot works at the beds and the other lot put seeds in pots at the bench.

So far we'e got potatoes chitting to go in containers in a few weeks, broad beans, onion sets, carrots and radishes in the ground, tomatoes, pumpkins in pots on windowsills and some sprouting daffodil bulbs into containers the first week in the hope that they will bloom (looking as though they will).

Hadn't though of sweetcorn, that is a very good idea.

The school already has a risk assessment that will cover this as they fairly regularly do one off gardening tasks with the children.

Thank you for the links as well.