Five Star Gardening

27 Oct 2023

We have many avid gardeners at the Prep; with our gardening club, forestry school and active work in the garden during lunch and break, we have plenty of activity happening in our school garden.

Our operation tidy up began last Spring, as we wanted to revive a tired, overgrown garden that was in much need of some TLC. With the help of Miss Walton’s parents and many of the school children, we started the clear up. This involved tidying, weeding, removal of old plants and sorting out the poly tunnel, a large delivery of compost and top soil and help from the Parents’ Association. Along with generous donations of bedding plants and equipment from our school families, then the garden really started to take shape!

After the completion of the tidy up, we planted a child friendly garden of flowers, fruit, vegetables and herbs in the raised beds. Resulting in our sensory garden smelling beautiful, especially the lavender. We planted sunflowers from children’s Science lessons along our fence, which added to the character of the garden. In the poly tunnel, we successfully planted tomatoes, some of which have been used in school lunches for the children to enjoy.

We also managed to grow cucumbers, which the Holiday Club children tasted during the Summer. In the colder period we grew courgettes which ended up being used in a Holiday Club cookery session where we baked yummy courgette muffins!

To help maintain the garden area, we appointed head gardeners Louie and Max. Along with many other children enjoying getting on board with the garden project, from tidying to planting, weeding and laying bark. All of the children have enjoyed keeping up with the maintenance of the garden and it has been helping give those children involved a sense of responsibility. We have also planted a new rose bush for our Daniel Davies memorial garden which we look forward to seeing bloom each year.

Now our Autumn tidying has begun. So far, the children have helped to plant Spring bulbs, winter veg and the whole school planted seeds and bulbs for World Food Day on the 16th October 2023. We can’t wait to watch the seedlings of cress, salad leaves, garlic, broad beans and onion grow!

All in all, it has been a very successful gardening year for the Prep and we were delighted to be awarded the RHSS Five Star Gardening Award for all our efforts. Level 5 is about gardening through the year, gardening with members of your local community and keeping gardening at the heart of your school.

Next step is … operation wild flower garden!