Cleaning up and garden treasure

The garden is often a mess after the summer and needs a good clear out. This is generally a popular job. The greenhouse at St John's gets completely overgrown with plants that have finished growing for the year, including a very prolific grape vine. I've no idea what the hat was all about.

And there's often hidden treasure lurking underground. No matter how hard you try to pick things in July, you always miss something. Which then is a bit of treasure for the autumn garden clean up crew.

Returning to giant sunflowers

There are often surprises in the garden waiting when you get back to school in September. You never know what's going to greet you in the garden. These huge sunflowers had grown well over the summer at Heald Place. 

Safe cooking with children

I've been helping children learn how to cook simple, healthy foods in after school cooking clubs. One thing that crops up is helping children develop skills in using kitchen implements safely and effectively. 

One thing I've learnt is that using proper equipment is much safer than equipment that is "for children".  A good, sharp kitchen knife is better than a blunt "safer" one as children can cut without straining and pressing hard which is much more likely to lead to slips and cuts. I've found that children seem happier using a knife with a serrated edge as this gives a better grip when cutting. 

Having effective ways of explaining something is at the heart of helping people to learn new things. I found "the claw" and "the bridge" good ways to explain how to cut safely. The picture is a great example of "the claw" with the fingers holding the tomato well away from the blade. 

"The bridge" involves holding something between thumb and forefinger to make a bridge and the knife cutting down between them. 

Huge parsnips

Now I like a good roasted parsnip at Christmas but you can leave them in the ground a bit longer. 

We pulled these beauties out in March, after a titanic struggle. 

Leaf mould

At Lark Hill in Salford they have a lot of large mature trees in the grounds.  A great job in the autumn is to collect leaves to make leaf mould.  This doesn't sound pleasant but the leaves will, after a year or so, rot down to produce a lovely fine compost that is great for adding to your growing areas. It doesn't have a lot of nutrients but it will improve the soil.

We used a lot of large sticks that had fallen from trees or were left over from a woodworking project to construct two leaf bins. We simply pushed larger sticks into the ground and wove willow branches between them.

Children love collecting leaves and it is a nice lesson in reusing what is naturally around us.

If you have large trees, don't install planters or a growing area near them. The tree roots take over, the beds get shaded and covered in leaves and sticks during the autumn and winter.

Glorious herbs

Herbs are great to grow for many different reasons. They look magnificent, they offer a sensory aspect to the garden with their taste, feel and smell and children can take them home either to eat or to grow their own.

Here at St Chrysostom's we have bay leaves, oregano, mint, chives and sorrel.  Must get some lavender.. oh and sage ...

It's easy to buy a small plant in a garden centre or even supermarket. Just plant them and most are pretty tough and will come back year after year.  They just need a bit of a trim in the late summer.

Producing new plants is easy in most cases. Just slice a piece of root off and plant it.

Sorrel is a children's favourite, they love nibbling the tangy citrus leaves.

But we haven't got a garden

Many schools lack green space to use for gardening and may be reluctant to give over what there is for growing.  However, you can still do a lot in by using a variety of planters and pots.

The ground here at Armitage was largely rubble and hardcore with a little poor quality soil.  The school laid weed suppressing fabric over it and then added a layer of chipbark several years ago.  We used a mixture of old wooden planters, conventional garden pots, an old water butt that had leaks cut in half and some pallets stacked up to make an insect hotel. It needs more watering and compost adding than planting into the ground would, but it works well.