[Irene]

Yes, I will admit, my title was a bit inflammatory..but I hope to get the attention of a few more posters working with school children and instilling the idea and benefits of "growing your own".

At the end of my post regarding "never, never, never.." ordering seeds after indulging in wine I asked for an individual involved with a school group to contact me so that I might send my unused seed packets to their project.

I was fortunate enough to be contacted by two rather wonderful forum members who both expressed an interest. They will both be receiving a parcel of seeds and a financial contribution. Understand when I say "financial contribution" I'm not speaking of building a wing on a building, its small, pathetic really, but its something.

My budget allows me to do this for a few other school projects if there is a need. I understand that in this time of budget crunching each of use needs to look at what we can do for the projects that we deem important and this is important to me.

Sooo...I'm looking for a few more of you to give me a few more school names that might make use of a contribution.

The only thing I require is that the donation goes to the actual project, the children growing seed. The reason for this is that I donated a not small sum to a group last year and received an invitation and thank you as the sponsor for a rather indulgent event for the program's supervisors...nothing went to the children

...and as an aside thank you to the members here who told me to keep the faith regarding spring onions. Directly sowed into the garden they are actually looking as if they may produce. Gardening is best when it produces those small victories

[Rangerkris]

My young children are involved hahahah we planted cabbage kale and pulled the garlic yesterday.

We have a school plot on site and at the children's school would love to lend a hand but just don't get the time to. With work, plot and playing my little lad named more plant's and veg than most of the rest of the school when the allotment site officer made a visit to the school.   he will have a wealth of growing knowledge when he is grown up.

At least you were not bombarded with messages from people that wanted the seed for them selves.

[PennyS]

We're lucky as our school just recently got a plot on our new village allotment site.  Over the past few weeks various classes have been traipsing down to do their stuff, and it's more or less all dug and half of it is planted.  They've been growing lots of plants at school to go in.

I've had various neighbours giving me various leftover seedlings for the school - they've probably now got more than they can fit in the plot!

Lovely to see.  I wish more schools had an opportunity like this.

[agingchick]

I work in a care home which set up an allotment in the grounds we have had help from local businesses and from two local schools, a secondary and a primary. The primary school has now set up is own gardening club which my grandson is involved in. the children come in and do a lot of the heavier work and our more able residents help with the watering, but all of them enjoy walking around the gardens looking at the plants whether they are flowers or fruit.  It really is good to see the kids involved with this.
Diane

[Irene]

Rangerkris:

I would have been okay if an individual had wanted some of the seeds. Seeds are so darn expensive and trying to obtain a variety can cut into many a tight budget. One of my favorite things on this site is reading about the creative ways individuals come up with to keep costs down and recycle items for use in their gardens.

My husband now knows to NEVER throw away the plastic tubs that Tesco chicken is packaged in as they make perfect starter trays.

Well done on getting your children involved in your garden. Reading your comment made me miss those times when my son was young...well, almost miss them 

Tonight I get to pour myself a glass of wine and do some more seed ordering...lol.

[totalnovice]

I work at a Youth Offending Team which supervises Kids wwho have statutory court orders. As an organisation we have two allotments, on differnet sites and you would be suprised how many of these street hardened kids who won't or can't go to school etc love messing about in the soil, planitng seeds and growing stuff for themseleves and the community. It has been a great sucess and I always pass on my surpluss seedlings from my own allotment. I also advise and help plan for next yr etc. everyone involved, staff, kids and community volunteers get a great deal out of it.

And on a more personal basis, my little boy, who is three in august, is a constant companion at the allotment. He helps with the hoeing, and the raking and his favrite thing is watering - very handy. You have to accept a few (or quite a lot) of casualties on the plant side, and on the green house glass side but surely getting him involved and understanding where his fruti and veg comes from is a better lesson in life.

[Aunt Sally]

My husband now knows to NEVER throw away the plastic tubs that Tesco chicken is packaged in as they make perfect starter trays.

Goodness me Irene - I am shocked -  I hope you don't really buy T*sco chicken.  They have a really bad record on chicken welfare   

No point getting children to grow veg unless you teach them that the way we treat animals defines our attitude to almost everything. !

Local freerange from your local butcher please !

[hamstergbert]

sadly, sometimes the wam glow from buying organic / free range / freeedom food etc chicken or whatever is not enough to offset the extra two quid a plate the ingredients cost.

OK, happen now to have the luxury of being able to make that choice now, and the time and opportunity to travel to some of the markets, but to be frank if we were back where we were financially thirty, forty years ago, perpetually skint (and getting temporary job when home on leave to help the family coffers.  Like I say, skint) and with a young family to care for I am pretty sure we would be round at the supermarkets buying what we could afford - and of course being made to feel like a cross between Pol Pot and Hitler for so doing....

[Aunt Sally]

That may be true for some people Hamsterbet but not I suspect in this case.

[Irene]

"No point getting children to grow veg unless you teach them that the way we treat animals defines our attitude to almost everything. !"

I would respectfully disagree. I don't feel the need to pass someone's idealogical litmus test in order to help with projects I view as positive.

Unfortunately my local butcher does not regularly carry free-range. As my home is a tad remote I use Tesco to deliver groceries that can't be obtained locally, i.e., fresh squeezed OJ, etc.. They also sell Free Range chickens. I received two in my order today. All of my lamb, pork and beef are locally grown. That being said I am not going to advise a family on a budget who can't afford to purchase as I do to withdraw all good community work because they haven't passed a purity test.

[Aunt Sally]

As I said Irene my comment was not aimed at people on a tight budget !

[kari]

All three of my children aged 2 to 11 love the allotment, they all bring their own skills,my two year old is an expert strawberry picker lol, 8yr old son likes to spred the old manure & my 11yr old daughter is the master weeder (50p paid per bucket helps ), they have really surprised me with how they've thrown themselves into it. I'm really looking forward to when they can harvest something they have grown from seed.

[Irene]

PennyS:

That does sound lovely and how nice of their neighbors to help them progress and share in their enthusiasm.

Sounds like they are making quite a bit of headway. Ah..for the days of the energy of youth.

[PennyS]

PennyS:

That does sound lovely and how nice of their neighbors to help them progress and share in their enthusiasm.

Sounds like they are making quite a bit of headway. Ah..for the days of the energy of youth.

It is lovely to see how the whole school is getting into it.  All the classes have been growing stuff to plant out... reception grew runner beans, other classes lettuce and so on.
My own two just love being on the lotty, it's only our first proper year on the plot and they are learning lots (as am I!) - here they are pretending to be potatoes...

[Trikidiki]

"Why aren't you getting young people involved?!"

I am!

We foster teenagers and try to get them involved on the plot whenever possible.

The lad we currently have is 14 years old and had seldom eaten fresh vegetables before he came to us.

He follows me around all the time and likes to get involved in what I'm doing. This year I gave him two raised beds at home to grow some veg of his own. I sent off for the Dig-in seeds for him. He's planted the carrots, beans, courgettes and salad. He's planted a few potatoes, onions and some beetroot. He really enjoyed growing and eating sweetcorn last year so has half a bed full.

The only real problem has been to get him to do the soil preperation before planting, he only wanted to do the planting but once he got into it he started to enjoy himself.