Raised Beds

Presumably due to the popularity of growing using the raised bed system Harrod Horticultural are adding more products to their range of raised beds systems and accessories.

Some systems would be great for use with young children. Using them will be reminiscent to playing at a sand or water tray.

Bear in mind that plants grown in beds raised from the ground will need more watering.

Accessories offering by Harrod include irrigation kits for raised beds.

Click here for more

Choosing Apples and Pears page is complete

I have now completed the first section on choosing fruit for your school vegetable patch - click here As usual any comments will be welcome.

Changes made to School Vegetable patch web site

Having used a website analyser to assess my School Vegetable Patch website it seemed that the pages with advice on choosing vegetables and fruit contained too many images and were too large (too many KBs) so I am in the process of splitting them into several pages. The vegetable section has been completed (I hope). The choosing vegetable page now has links to choosing root vegetables, choosing peas and beans etc. I hope this is better (the web analyser says it is!). Please email me if you have difficulty with anything on the website e.g. finding your way around. Suggestions for how this can be improved are always welcome - honest!

Why not try making a gift?

If you want to give a special gift but have no pocket money to spare. Why not try making something?

Try a grass head or a cress head. Just set up the gift so that those receiving it just add water and watch the hair grow.




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Gardening Calendar

The gardening calendar on The School Vegetable Patch website is now completed up until January. Click here for calendar menu page

When browsing the list of suggested activities please bear in mind that location and weather conditions very much affect any timing of gardening activities and the lists are intended as suggestions only.

Please use comments areas on the blog to suggest other activities or describe what you have done at the appropriate time of year.

Use this posting for January activities and use the links below for other months:

School Vegetable Patch Website

Do you have a website or blog?

I'd like as many schools as possible to be able to take advantage of the information on the School Vegetable Patch website, which is linked to this blog, but Google will prioritise sites with the most number of links from other websites. Can you help by posting a link to the home page of the website on your website or blog (that is of course if you have found the site to be useful!)
 Additionally if you have a school website that has photographs or information about your school vegetable plot, I would love to include a link on the page set aside for school garden examples. Schools seem to be very shy of sharing their efforts - remember it is just as valuable to share what went wrong!! Also please contact me if you have seen a school website with such information and I will contact them to ask permission to link to them.

Forget hyacinth bulbs for the classroom!

If you usually grow hyacinth bulbs in the classroom why not have a go at something more dramatic.

I bought these two bulbs on the 16 November and planted them the next day - less that two weeks later and they are off to a flying start. No need to keep them in the dark so you can watch the whole thing as it happens. A fully grown plant is dramatic too with large flowers up to 25 cm across on a flower stalk that reaches 90 cm or more. You can almost see them growing!!

Click on a link to view more about each variety:

Apple Blossom and Red Lion

More exotic varieties

Evergreen

Exotic Peacock

Papillio

Lots of other varieties here

If you haven't a class of children to impress why not grow one yourself - they also make an ideal gift.


NEWS FLASH - T & M have cut the cost of their amaryllis bulbs drastically - click here