Big plans for little green fingers!
How we brought the school garden back to life…
Hi! My name is Phillipa. I’m a Voice Actor and Singer/song-writer and have been gardening for so many years, it’s hard to count. My passion for nature and all the benefits it provides has been with me since I was a little girl. In fact, my great, great uncle use to maintain the Crystal Palace ‘Secret gardens’ back in the day, and I distinctly remember the sweet, inviting scent of my grandfathers greenhouse, which was over-flowing with ripe & juicy tomatoes!
When I had a child of my own, I began to realise even more the importance of learning about flora and fauna and how to nurture and care for Mother Nature. If we learn to co-exist in a kind and caring way, the benefits are endless! From improved mental health & concentration, to increasing oxytocin and promoting calm, not to mention the health benefits of growing your own organic fruit and vegetables.
My daughter’s school had a wonderful green space for a ‘living classroom’ but it had fallen into disrepair from neglect and lack of volunteers. Bringing the garden back to life became my mission!
Two of the most important lessons I wanted to get across to the kids at Goldstone School were that they can help reduce carbon emissions and waste, and they can grow organically, without using any harmful, carcinogenic pesticides.
Here are some of the things we did to turn an unused green space into a thriving vegetable plot and garden!
From this…
To this!
One of the hardest parts of setting up a school garden, or community space is finding financial funding or ‘hands on’ help to get things off the ground. But with perseverance and determination, any school with a green space can be turned into a plant-thriving, nature haven for children.
The first thing we did at Goldstone Primary School, is find a way to acquire a greenhouse:
Fortunately our school had been donated a green house by ‘The Greenhouse People’ around 6 years ago but nobody had been able to face the challenge of assembling it! It took a dedicated effort from a team of parents to face the mind bending challenge of putting it together over a weekend with only a internet print out of instructions to go by!
This is one of the largest items in any garden club budget, therefore my advice would be to look on Freecycle, place ads on allotment noticeboards and e-mail gardening companies to see if they have a charitable funds available. If you manage to get one second-hand, be prepared! You’ll usually need to collect it, dismantle it and construct it again and perhaps replace missing panels if it’s been damaged by weather. You’ll also have to have good persuasion skills in order to get volunteers to help you…
Raised beds:
These are a great way to set up your growing space and the kids can have fun making the signs that tell what vegetables are in what bed. You can easily make the beds from old scaffolding planks (try contacting local builders or scaffolding companies to see if they have any they no longer need).
Cloches:
These are incredibly useful-particularly for autumn and early spring plantings and you can make your own cloche out of old plumbing pipe or hula hoops, plus some horticultural fleece and bamboo canes. For the growing on of individual plants, you can recycle clear plastic bottles. Simply, cut off the base, sand down any rough edges, then place them over the plants to protect them from harsh winds.
Seeds:
The costs of seeds soon adds up, so we contacted loads of garden centres and seed companies, to see if they were in the charitable mood and if they wanted to donate to the Goldstone Gardening scheme. They usually have an annual budget for charity spends. In Brighton we have an event called ‘Seedy Sunday’ and it is another place you can pick up seeds cheaply.
Trees:
The Woodland Trust kindly donated 5 Rowen, 5 Crabapple and 5 cedar to the school as well, which is going to be great for providing shade on the hot Sports Days!
Beyond that we did a LOT of begging and borrowing. We managed to get donations of compost, soil, gardening gloves, seeds, saplings and composting bins.
Ruth Chalker, the head gardener for the Goldstone Gardening Group project has been successfully teaching kids all about permeability, horticulture and sustainability for over a year now. She has also held talks with the teachers and has worked alongside them to find news ways of teaching the normal curriculum, but in an outside space. The Living Classroom has also been set up for the children to learn how we should all be respectful to nature and to encourage them to grow their own fruit and vegetables and to eat a healthier diet. Last summer we even had the kids selling Goldstone veg at school pick up time!
I’ve kept a journal of the full process of reinstating our schools garden. Here are a few pages to inspire you!
For over a year now, all the PTA events (Summer Fairs, Fetes and Discos) held at Goldstone Primary School have generated enough proceeds to keep the garden going and for Ruth’s wages to be paid. Even now, during Lockdown, Ruth has been busy keeping the grass mown, the seeds sown and has been nurturing the plants and vegetables that are growing. So whenever the kids do return to school, they will have a beautiful green space in which to relax, unwind and continue learning about the importance of sustainability and permaculture. They will also have a healthy crop to take home and eat!
It’s taken a long time and a lot of energy to get our Gardening Project going but I’m hoping many schools will follow.
I feel really proud of what we’ve achieved as a school community. We have created a safe haven to improve mental health, creativity and attitudes towards learning. The teachers have embraced the opportunity for taking the every day cirriculum outdoors into the fresh air. In return this has improved concentration and behaviour and inspired a new generation of little gardeners!
There are plenty of lesson plans and teaching resources to download:
RHS-Campaign for School Gardening
The Great Plant Hunt- ‘Following in Darwin’s Footsteps’-EYFS to Yr 6 lesson plans
Woodland Trust - KS2 and KS3 resources to teach about woods and trees
The Woodland Trust also offer free trees twice yearly as well. We are soon to plant our 5 Rowan, 5 Elder and 5 Crabapple….More Trees….Less Pollution…. more oxygen!
The Wildlife Trusts -Many of the trusts offer lesson plans and other resources including:
The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales
Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust
Avon Wildlife Trust-Filming Wildlife
Wildlife Watch activity sheets
Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust-learning to love heathland
Warwickshire Wildlife Trust -creating a wildlife garden