RE growing with children

rosyapple · « **on:** January 17, 2012, 09:28 »

HI I am a manager of a nursery school and we havesome plots in which we grow our own vegetables, we have been doing this with the children for the past couple of years and would like to expand and vary what we grow, can anyone help us.

thank you

SnooziSuzi · « **Reply #1 on:** January 17, 2012, 09:50 »

Hello rosyapple, welcome to the site.

What do you grow just now and whereabouts in the world are you? (someone's bound to ask you to put your location in your profile (click on your name and go to Forum Profile Information), so I'll just mention it now).

I would have thought that it would be best to stick to the same things (within a variety) of veg so that you are fairly consistent each year, for example grow cabbages and caulis with one year and sprouts and kale with another year etc so that you get the variety but not additional work to do.

Pumpkins always go down well, but they take an awful long time to mature and still won't be ready when the kids go into Reception class (or do you look after both nursery and reception like they do in some schools?).

The obvious things are salad things, particularly radishes, but I have yet to find a tot that likes radishes!

Also, how about some rosy apple trees?

that way they can watch from the blossom to the fruitlets and to harvesting.

Others will be along with some better suggestions soon.

Su

rosyapple · « **Reply #2 on:** January 17, 2012, 10:19 »

Hi
thank you for your reply we are in Lancashire and the children that we look after are babies to pre-school. in the past we have grown carrotts, courgettes, tomatoes and potatoes. as we have sweet potatoes on our menu we are thinking of having a go with these do you have any advice?

RobertSongs · « **Reply #3 on:** January 17, 2012, 10:37 »

Strawberries and more Strawberries my three yr old runs straight to the strawberry patch everytime we go to the plot..Blackberries also varieties without thorns on.I would try to avoid growing things that attract to many pests. Courgette, Squash, Runner beans will usually give good results as long as you respect the weather..and you get a lot of growth quickly which is important to keep them interested..maybe sink a lge container into the ground fill it with ericaseous compost and put a couple of blueberry bushes in..

savbo · « **Reply #4 on:** January 17, 2012, 10:48 »

One of the tricky things is growing crops that you harvest before the summer holidays. Our daughter's school is next to our allotment and they have a set of raised beds, and while they grew plenty, there was a lot of stuff that ripened after they'd broken up.

Peas and mangetout are good - if you can get them nibbling on peashoots you're giving them a taste for greens, and mangetout are great straight off the plant...

a thornless blackberry needs a lot of room but can be tucked away against a fence and gives something when you start back in September.

Sweet potatoes are tricky to grow by all accounts (see current thread) but buckets or bags of spuds are easy and the Ooohhh moment when you tip them out is great! 1st earlies should be ready before summer hols, maybe some 2nd earlies too?

bazh · « **Reply #5 on:** January 17, 2012, 11:15 »

Hi rosyapple, if you have any allotments nearby have a wander down during the week and just ask a few of the older chaps or ladies for some advice I'm sure they'll be more than helpful, our site supplies young brassica plants to the local primary school for them to plant and built covers with enviromesh for there raised beds and one of the ladies waters/keeps an eye on there veg during school holidays. Worth a try.

bigben · « **Reply #6 on:** January 17, 2012, 11:51 »

I also work in a school - we have two poly tunnels which allow us to provide a little shelter for the kids as well as the plants.

We try to get the kids involved in a little challenge to make a nice veg soup from just the veg they grow so they grow spuds, onions, garlic, carrots etc. Some in those cheap morrison pots. Once ready they take their produce into the food room and cook the soup.

They also have to take home a little portion of their own strawbs and some salad. This is addition to the usual grow the biggest sunflower competition. I think giant pumpkins would also be great but would need to happen with kids that were around after the summer holidays to see the pumpkins ripen.

shoozie · « **Reply #7 on:** January 17, 2012, 21:02 »

Peas definitely would be on my list along with the other ideas above. If you've room, maybe even some autumn raspberries.

A member here has a school diary - maybe worth having a read of that in the diary section

Aunt Sally · « **Reply #8 on:** July 15, 2020, 20:33 »

I have removed your link as we would prefer you to post information here rather than have our members redirected to another site.

We�d love to see your project and some pictures posted here

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RE growing with children

rosyapple

RE growing with children

SnooziSuzi

Re: RE growing with children

rosyapple

Re: RE growing with children

RobertSongs

Re: RE growing with children

savbo

Re: RE growing with children

bazh

Re: RE growing with children

bigben

Re: RE growing with children

shoozie

Re: RE growing with children

Aunt Sally

Re: RE growing with children

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