Young Gardeners: Growing gardeners of the future - September 2011

This month has been largely about gathering in the harvest from the raised beds in the school garden and what a good harvest it is.

Shaydon’s Swiss chard

Shaydon harvested enough Swiss chard to feed a small army during one of his sessions in the garden and was delighted with the lovely bright red, white and yellow colour of the stems. This is something that Shaydon planted himself many months back; he has watered it, fed it and watched it grow and now even harvested it for himself. Shaydon doesn’t know this but as I left the school and on the way home, I saw him sat at the bus stop proudly holding the chard he had grown so well. It was a great feeling to see this and know that it’s been such a complete success for him.

Katie gets a taste for kohl rabi

One vegetable has added lots of excitement to the whole garden and this is the kohl rabi. It’s the way it grows and forms leaves from the strange round edible centre that grabs attention. It’s fascinating to all who see it and although we have one line of it and another in the keyhole garden which still had some growing to do, we had enough of it ready for the students to pick. Katie was the one who carefully lifted it from the bed, brushed off the soil that hangs onto the roots and took off some of the dead leaves. Some went into the staff room for the teachers and some went home with Katie.

The next week Katie made a bee line for the kohl rabi rows as she had boiled it, sliced it and mixed it into her mash potato for tea (we say tea in the north) and she said it tasted fabulous so was there any more? This for me is a job well done because Katie has grown, cooked and eaten it all herself – it’s just what the kitchen garden is all about and I am proud of what she has achieved.

Mollie harvests raspberries

I must say something this month about Mollie and her raspberries. Molly has been looking after the raspberries since we planted them for one reason only. She loves the taste of them and is just looking for one handful to take home with her to go with some ice cream.

Thanks to Victoriana nurseries in Kent, we have red ones, yellow ones and apricot ones so lots of choice for Mollie. So as you can see in the wonderful picture of Mollie holding a sweet bag of just a dozen raspberries with different colour and flavours, she got the fruit she wanted to make her perfect dessert.

Again this is what the kitchen garden project is all about. Mollie is a shining example of how the children are doing it and even though it’s a humble bag to add to her ice cream, they are her raspberries, planted, grown and harvested within the school’s project.

Courgettes abound

Again thanks to Victoriana Nursery we have all sorts of courgettes that have already been harvested and taken home. Of course it is confusing if you are used to courgettes being long and dark green, but then this is an unusual kitchen garden project. We do have the normal green ones but we also have, green round ones called ‘Eight Ball’ and alongside these we have long yellow ‘Jemmer’ courgettes, ‘One Ball’, which are round and yellow and ‘Crystal Apple’ – yellow and green and again round in shape. From Thompson & Morgan we have a lovely variety called ‘De Nice a Fruit Rond’ with its speckled and fluted skin.

Black radish causes surprise

Now the students have grown a whole range of radish and must have thought they had seen it all, until that is I very sneakily gave them ‘Nero Tondo’, a Spanish black radish from Jungle Seeds online. They planted them in just the same way as the others, but last week when they pulled them the looks on their faces were a real picture and I had to smile. The radish had a hard black skin with crispy milky white flesh on the inside. Ours were supposed to be mild but believe me they were hot! The black radish really does look the part and confused the students. It is always good to make them think and to realise they have much more to learn!

Mollie’s mustard leaves

After writing last month about the mustard leaves causing amusement (the students thought that mustard came in jars) I have a funny story for this month. Mollie has become our chief tester and can be found eating all sorts of different vegetables out of the garden. Well this month was no exception and I persuaded her to try the mustard leaves as they looked a little like they were going over and running to seed.

I had completely forgotten that the mustard had been fed with comfrey feed more than once in the last month and that can intensify the taste even more. Mollie’s face was a picture; it might be a great job to be chief tester, just be sure that what you are testing isn’t just a tad too hot to handle.

French intensive gardening

Regular readers may recall that I introduced a different growing technique to the kitchen garden. It’s called French intensive gardening, well at least I think it is! This is where a jam jar is pushed into the soil to a depth of about 5cm (2in). Seeds are then placed into the indentation and it’s filled lightly with soil and watered.

Now, the theory goes that when the soil is compressed the moisture is brought to the surface with capillary action, so that when you put the seed in the indentation there is much more moisture present than normal and this means the seeds should grow better and faster. Also when you water, the indentation holds the water a little better and this makes the seeds grow a little quicker and better too.

It’s an interesting theory and one we have mixed results from having tried it in the African Keyhole garden. The students are watching the experiment closely and we will bring you some results in a forthcoming issue.

Saying goodbye to the veg

While the students are all very much looking forward to the summer, I have noticed that they seem sentimental about leaving the kitchen garden project for the holidays and several have asked if the plants will be okay while they are away. They are almost looking at the vegetables as friends like I do. I suppose it’s a form of ownership. They have looked after them, watered and grown them and I know they will be a little sad to leave them for such a long time. But I will be there over the holidays and will have all sorts growing and ready for them when they return.

Drought strikes Skie’s gutter garden

Unfortunately the gutter garden has failed us this month. It’s been so dry and within the school environment it’s always very hard to keep the dry gutters watered. This has been a hard lesson to learn as the other parts of the project are doing so well. So Skie has to take stock of what’s happened and look at how to make an irrigation system to slowly drip water to where it’s needed in the gutters. If only we can find a way of collecting the excess water in the gutters too. Any ideas from other KG readers gratefully received.

Next month: The harvesting and planting continues. We will also have great news about this project in 2012.

The Whitgift Garden Project

At Whitgift Senior School the Inspiring Communities Government Fund made it possible for the school to team up with John Cavill to design and build the garden and help educate the children through gardening. It aims to lift the aspirations of all the children in the school through learning outdoors.

Follow progress each month in KG and you can also log on to John Cavill’s website at www.simplygardening.co.uk/whitgift.htm to view the latest information.

If you have a school project you’d like us to feature in KG simply contact Steve Ott: sott@mortons.co.uk

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