Planning a new school vegetable patch?

Planning is key to the success of your school vegetable patch. You need to be systematic in your approach and very well planned. This is especially important when working with children and if you are a beginner to vegetable growing.

For some suggestions for how you would go about starting a new patch from scratch click here

Share your plot activities!

It seems schools are really shy at sending examples of their vegetable plots.

An article with supporting photos of a school plot can be a really purposeful activity for children and publishing on a website gives children a whole new audience to consider. The article could be set up using a variety of different genre e.g. journalistic, informative, instuctional, discussion pros and cons of doing something in a particular way, diary entries etc.

It also provides a very useful resource to share with other schools.

Ways to share information would be to send an article to my website but this isn't the only way of sharing. Why not think of creating a website especially devoted to your gardening activities or if you prefer create a blog to which all children can contribute. If you do this I would love to have a link to your website or blog so my visitors can share your experiences.

A free website mangement system is available here http://www.schools.ik.org/ it provides a really easy way to create school website which I use when creating websites for schools. Articles created by he children could be copied and pasted directly onto the web page although images would need to be uploaded separately - it isn't difficult. If you don't fancy doing this yourself I do offer a web creation service which you may want to consider using. Contact me for information on cost etc. although as this is just a spare time activity for me there is only limited availability. You have more chance in autumn winter when my gardening activities are less demanding.

Tou may also have a blogging syten set up by your LA - I know the Yorkshire and Humber side region YHGFL have a system - check with your ICT consultant.
There is also a free system called Edublogs http://edublogs.org/

What about a few bulbs to brighten the veg patch?

hy not keep the children's interest by growing some bulbs. These can be grown in pots for the classroom or directly in the ground. I remember as a child growing a hyacinth in a special container which allowed me to watch the roots developing. I don't know if these containers are still available but any glass container will do that has a mouth that is small enough to hold the bulb just over the water level. Fill the container with water just to the point that it is barely touching the bottom of the bulb.

There are plenty of catalogues dropping through my door advertising offers and many more on the Internet.

One such catalogue was from Spalding bulbs so I decided to check out their web site to get a bit more information of what was on offer.

For their full range of bulbs click here