Community Alottment Garden.
The idea for the Community allotment Garden came to be one winter’s day in 2000 when Ranger, Tony Newby, decided that unused plots adjoining his own allotment should be put to use for the community. From this seed, a full programme of activities was created by the Ranger Service and was running by the spring and summer of 2001.
The programme of activities is designed to encourage children to discover the joys of gardening for their own food, as well as teaching younger children about photosynthesis through engagement in practical activities.
The programme also demonstrates the superior quality of fresh foods, the impact on the environment of flying food from foreign countries, as compared to growing your own seasonal food (carbon footprint) and the effects of global warming on our local environment.
The activities also encourage the children to keep active and to learn about cooking and food safety. In addition the children learn about the food chain, habitats, composting, symbiotic relationships in nature and gain a variety of practical skills such as, safe digging, manual handling and planting. In addition, the programme of activities has been designed to target areas and aspects of the foundation learning stage such as; knowledge and understanding of the world, personal social and emotional development, mathematical development, physical development and communication language and literacy development.
It is our intention that the children have a vested interest in the success of their plants, having planted the seed, watched it grow, planted it out, harvested it and as the final reward, eating the fruits of their labour. This allows for a logical build up of understanding in regards to growing food. The programme functions in three parts.
Seeds. We teach the children what a seed is, what a seed needs i.e. sun, rain, stale air (CO2) and soil, how to recognise germination, the formation of roots, how to recognise suitable soil conditions (sandy, clay etc) and how to change soil conditions through cultivation and fertilisation.
The children all plant their own bean at school; the bean is labelled, allowing each child to watch their bean grow. These beans, once matured to the appropriate level, are taken to the polytunnel at the community garden and planted out later on. The polytunnel allows the children to examine plants very closely. It is here that they will get the best views of pests and helpful insects.
The children are able to see familiar fruits and vegetables in early stages of development, a vital aid to understanding how to recognise maturity in fruits and vegetables.
Planting. Planting helps the children understand and reinforce the importance of; soil conditions, the role of the gardener, what roots do, the effects of pests, the habits and effects of helpful insects, pollination and the different requirements of different plants in relation to the process of photosynthesis i.e. squashes, beans, legumes, cabbages and fruits.
The children will also be given practical tasks relating to composting and good plant care.
Harvesting. This activity goes a long way to removing the stigma of eating fruit and veg often found in young people. This effect is thanks to the vested interest the children have in the produce, promoted by the positive experiences gained via the logical progression of the programme.
The Rangers demonstrate how to gather and recognise different vegetables when they have ripened, the children are then free to harvest the mature beans that they can now easily recognise. They are shown how to pod the beans and how to compost the pods.
All You Can Eat! The produce gathered by the group is washed ready for food preparation. The vegetables are made into simple dishes emphasising the fresh ingredients, such as, summer soups, hearty salads, roasted vegetables and freshly baked breads (containing the fresh vegetables).
An example of a menu might be; broad beans with fresh thyme and pasta; potato and spring onion salad; cabbage, bean and fennel soup; roasted peppers. All served with freshly baked bread.
We aim to have encouraged the development of a long-term interest in gardening for food via our programme of activities, leading the children from the sowing of seed to the eating of the produce.
We also aim to show the children how simple, fast, rewarding and delicious cooking your own food can be, especially when you have grown the ingredients yourself.
We aim to have empowered the children so that there is no barrier to them beginning gardening for themselves, with confidence, at the earliest opportunity.
The Rangers that prepare food have basic food safety certificates.
All Rangers are CRB checked and First Aid at Work trained. Schools that have been involved include: Falconers Hill Infants and Junior,Ashby fields Primary, St James Primary, Abbey Primary, Grange Infants, Southbrook Infants, Welton C of E Primary, Badby Primary, Barby Primary, Crick Primary (Not exhaustive).
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