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Archive for 2013
The case for gardening in schools has perhaps never been stronger – it encourages exercise and healthy eating and helps to ensure that children ‘reconnect with nature’ – as discussed in the initial post on school gardening.
Today, in the first of a series of posts on the practical steps to creating a successful School Garden, I’m looking at how to get your project up and running.
Where do you start? How do you build up the momentum that’ll be needed to turn your dreams into reality? How can you get the resources you need to get it off the ground? Here are 7 steps to help get your school gardening project off the starting blocks.
1. Do your homework- check out the internet for advice and ideas about school garden learning and explore other school gardens in your area. This research will help you to firm up your ideas and think about how you might present them. Talk to those involved in the school gardens you visit – their advice and experience is priceless. And they might even offer to help you get started!
2. Make the Case – so how do you get the key people on your side? If you’re a volunteer, float your idea with one or more teachers who you think might be sympathetic and explore the idea a bit further (if you’re a teacher speak with your colleagues and sound out some parents). Once you’ve firmed up your initial thoughts, it’s time to get the Head teacher on board. You need to have a clear outline of what the project is going to achieve and how it could benefit the school’s approach to learning in general (including curriculum links if possible) and ‘learning outside the classroom’ in particular – so think ‘outdoor classroom’ and use this key phrase in your plans. Your outline should ideally include a suggested location for the garden, rough design,timescale and how the garden will be established and looked after. It might also be an idea to say how you think progress will be monitored and reported. If you are able to convice a number of teachers, governors, parents and friends of the School, so much the better.
Hedge planting- put some natural boundaries around your garden with community effort!
3. Build a team – you will not create the garden alone, even less ensure its effective ongoing use. You need to build a team around the project which can do the many things needed. A committee/ steering group/ project team of some sort needs to be set up and at this stage. It will be important to get all the key interests in the project involved; later on your committee structure might be slimmed down as individual roles start to pan out and inevitably some people lose interest. So who should you target? Keep an eye out for parents who can bring particular skills, assets (mini diggers!) or contacts to the project – these might be builders, gardeners, landscapers, forestry workers, publicists or funding bid writers and so on. Establishing a broad and varied support base at this stage will set the project on a positive course. Hold formal meetings to develop your project but also use the web to communicate. Don’t forget to ask the Head, teachers and governors to be on the committee – their involvement at this stage is important, but may reduce once the project is flying!
4. Think ahead – as the project develops it will become clear what the real goals will be and the main lines of action you’ll need to take to achieve these. Being clear, concise and friendly will help to communicate the project effectively. At the same time, be patient – it’s natural to want to launch right into construction works, but it will take time for your project to evolve and the learning opportunities to be firmed up, which will in turn have a bearing on your design, layout, routine etc. So it’s important to have detailed discussions with the teachers who will make use of their ‘outdoor classroom’. This discussion may take anything from a few months to a year.
picture- RHS
5. ‘Quick wins’ to promote your cause – whilst it will take time to clarify your overall objectives and start to firm up your design, you can keep up the momentum and start to generate wider interest. Plan activities which will test out some ideas and generate interest ; e.g. can you start to grow things in containers around the school and get children involved in cultivating flowers or food in these? A little project starting with seed sowing in the classroom and eventually seeing mature plants placed outside will demonstrate what can be achieved and get the children on board.
6. Check possible barriers to progress and get permissions – check out whether your outline design has implications for the school’s utilities or the way it operates, and if you need them get permissions in principle before going much further with your design work. For example, a reliable source of water nearby is an important if not vital consideration – will this be possible from existing outside taps/ rainwater harvesting or do you need to get another connection installed? Will this be acceptable to the school?
7. Secure the start-up resources – once you have a clear, albeit outline, view of your project and the design of the garden, it’s time to firm up what resources you’ll need to get the project established and get commitments for these. Some of these can be ‘promises’ of help from well skilled/equipped parents or friends of the school. But you’ll probably need some start up cash – to purchase materials, tools, seed etc. Sources internal to the school can be approached – the school budget if possible, but more likely a Parents/ Friends Association. Then you can explore outside sources including local charities as well as national programmes like the Big Lottery.
Once you have a strong team around you, a clear plan with the start up resources you need and a growing awareness and support from the school and wider community, it’s time to get serious! In the next post on School Gardening I share some tips about planning and designing your new space for growing children!
Source: ‘How to grow a School Garden- a Complete Guide for Parents and Teachers’- Arden Bucklin-Sporer and Rachel Kathleen Pringle, Timber Press Books 2010
Useful websites:
Garden Organic support for Schools
RHS Campaign for School Gardening
RHS young gardener of the year 2013
Learning outside the classroom- manifesto
Setting up and running a school garden- UN Food and Agriculture organisation
Cawston Primary School Garden following work by a ‘Garden Gang’ event last Saturday
Old School Gardener
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‘The Garden House is the elegant former home of the vicars of Buckland Monachorum..(near Tavistock, Devon)…
The present building dates from the early 19th century and now accommodates the tearooms and conference centre. The history of this 8-acre garden is closely entwined with that of Buckland Abbey and the local church. In 1305 the Bishop instructed the Abbot to build a house for the parish priest and this site was chosen. At the dissolution of the monasteries, the abbot became the vicar of Buckland Monachorum and by the early 1700s, the vicarage consisted of a substantial 3-storey dwelling. The remains of this building, a tower with spiral staircase and a thatched barn, formerly the kitchen, are now the romantic ruins in the Walled Garden.
A modern vicarage was built in the 1920s and The Garden House was sold as a private dwelling. The house came onto the market again just after the Second World War and was purchased and given its present name by Lionel Fortescue, a retiring master at Eton, and his wife Katharine. Lionel was the son of a Newlyn school painter and had a good eye for colour as well as being an exacting plantsman. Lionel and Katharine immediately set about renovating and developing their garden whilst running a thriving market garden business, providing stock plants for growers in the Tamar Valley, and managing a herd of Jersey dairy cattle.
Over nearly 40 years, the Fortescues created a garden viewed as one of the finest in Britain. By 1961, they had established the Fortescue Garden Trust, an independent registered charity to which they bequeathed the house and garden to ensure the survival of this beautiful place for future generations. After their deaths in the early 1980s, ownership passed to the charity which to this day maintains the Fortescue’s lovely legacy.
The second phase of development took place under Keith Wiley who was appointed by Lionel and spent 25 years as Head Gardener. Keith took the 6 acres of paddocks to the far side of the road into cultivation from 1990, creating a series of gardens that take their inspiration from the natural world. Keith left in 2003 to concentrate on writing and creating his own nursery, Wildside Plants.
Matt Bishop is the present Head Gardener and he is particularly well-known for his expertise on snowdrops and bulbs. Matt’s brief is to care for and respect the legacies of his predecessors whilst ensuring, just as they did, that The Garden House remains a crucible of new ideas and new plants, at the cutting edge of horticultural excellence and innovation. He has undertaken a major refurbishment of the original Fortescue garden as well as ongoing maintenance in other areas to ensure a long opening season of glorious colour and variety. This has been an excellent opportunity to introduce many new plants whilst continuing Lionel’s principle of using only the best forms and cultivars avaialble.
Matt has two horticultural students under training here and a small team of dedicated staff and volunteers who care for the garden.’
Source: The Garden House website
Old School Gardener
Caging our children- a price worth paying to beat the vandals? what are your views on childrens’ play?
Old School Gardener
Winter on the Farm
Hannah and I have finally thawed out from the freezing cold and are enjoy the somewhat tropical temperature of 10 degrees down at Gressenhall farm. As I didn’t last time, I shall take a few words to introduce myself, my name is Tom Watson and I am the other half of the Heritage Landscape Management trainee team. We are now four months through the scheme and are still thoroughly enjoying it! Like Hannah, I am an Environmental Science graduate from the University of East Anglia and I have a keen interest in the history of the UK’s landscape and the environment. I have previously worked on a farm and my most of family are linked to agriculture in some way. And so when this traineeship at Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse became available it seemed like the perfect opportunity for me to gain skills to help me…
View original post 600 more words
So what do you use to keep your plants supported and under control? Do you favour ‘old school ties’ (!) or prefer the wide range of modern products now on offer? Here’s a gallery of different types of tie with a few comments based on my experiences- I’d love to hear your views!
Chain lock – can cut the length you require and can be adjusted. Plastic- degrade after a season? Packs of pre cut lengths also available.
Tree belts- sturdy, diferent lengths/ thicknesses, for for use with posts/stakes.
Plastic/wire twist on reel- can cut to length required and easy to use , but once fixed doesn’t have much give, so not good where stems growth expected as it will effectively cut the stem unless loosened in time.
Jute tree ties- softer than plastic/rubber belts, so good where stems are tender/thin. Biodegradeable.
Old nylons/ tights used to secure tomatoes- good ‘stretchability’ and also soft, so won’t damage stems. The recycler’s option!
Raffia- natural product useful for slender stems and a ‘natural’ look- found it a bit fiddly to use myself.
Plastic rings (wire versions also) for linking plant stems to a cane- good room for stem growth & movement, but can chafe the stems? Plastic- will eventually degrade/snap?
Suede plant ties- stronger and more durable than jute/cotton, and as soft. Only one length though?
Plastic stem supports- fix stems to trellises, fences etc..No experience of these..
Good old fashioned jute twine- different thicknesses and easy to cut and tie stems in- but will only last a season- biodegradeable.
Individual stems held to wall/fence with nail- I’ve found these difficult to fix into my walls and also degrade/crack after cold weather.
Velcro – easy to cut off the length you need and you can expand the space as the plant stem grows. How well do they last? Some come with a reel cutter that can be fixed to your waist belt, and also come in packs of pre cut lengths.
Biodegradeable cotton- needs a knot, and will rot fairly quickly? At least no plastics into landfill..
Cable ties- strong plastic, of varying lengths/thicknesses – good for tying canes or other structures together- not good for securing plant stems -can’t be adjusted
Soft tie- rubber/plastic covered wire which can be cut and bent to shape. Soft covering good for cushioning stem, but probably best used on harder stems where a more permanent fix is required- eg roses against trellis.
Quizzicals- two more cryptic clues for you:
- Hello Miss Black
- A punch up in the water
Old School Gardener
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‘Whenever I want to escape the hustle and bustle of Lisbon, and don’t want to travel far, I retreat to the gardens of the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum.
Covering roughly 17 acres, this beautifully landscaped garden contains a wide variety of well-established tropical as well as indigenous plants and trees that shelter subtly-appointed benches and seats. In the last few months a network of new, flat, winding paths has been opened through the garden.
There are picnic tables situated next to a lake where you can sit on bright winter days and soak up the sun, or watch the ducks with their fleets of ducklings enjoying the water in spring. At the weekends the gardens come alive with the sound of kids playing in the sunshine.
In the summer months, it is nice to disappear into this garden down one of the maze-like paths that snake through the shrubbery and to feel as if you are the only person in the world, surrounded only by birds scurrying around in the undergrowth or flitting in the trees. Somehow, the vast tree canopies manage to dull the sound of Lisbon traffic to the point you forget it is there and will also shelter you from the heat of the day.
The garden contains an open-air amphitheater where, during the summer, a programme of films or music events takes place in the evenings.
Whether on a hot, sultry summer evening or a bright, sunny winter day this garden is the perfect place to be and feel completely relaxed.’
Old School Gardener
An old Workhouse Yard has been turned into a showcase cottage garden of the 1930’s at Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse Museum, Norfolk.
What is a cottage garden?
‘The words ‘cottage garden’ conjure up an idyllic image involving roses round the door of a picturesque thatch cottage with towering hollyhocks and delphiniums (or something similar) either side of a brick path that leads to a picket gate. It’s all very romantic, always spring or summer – and always sunny.’ (The Enduring Gardener)
Historically, cottage gardens date from medieval times and were where labourers living in tied cottages grew a lot of their own food to bolster their poor wages. Vegetables were grown – not only to feed the family but also to perhaps to feed a household pig and a few chickens. Fruit was grown – apples and pears for example – with wild strawberries being gathered from the hedgerows. Flowering plants would have been collected from the wild and it is possible that flowers like violets, primroses, cowslips, dog rose and wild honey suckle featured in some cottage gardens.
Monasteries grew herbs for medicinal purposes and vegetables for the monks’ food. Their knowledge was much sought after and this filtered through to the poorer classes.
The 18th and 19th centuries brought many changes – the Enclosure Acts meant that wealthy landowners could remove the peasants’ right to graze animals on common land. This forced many to grow food in their gardens to feed themselves. Gradually living conditions for the poor improved – they were able to use their gardens not just to grow vegetables for food but flowers too. Gardeners exchanged ideas and plants and soon flowers and shrubs that were only ever seen in ‘the big house’ appeared in cottage gardens. The Victorian period also saw many new varieties of bright colourful annuals used as bedding plants.In the late 19th and early 20th centuries Gertrude Jekyll developed the cottage garden style on a grand scale.
The First and Second World Wars brought food shortages and so vegetables and fruit took priority over ornamental planting in every available garden space. Once food rationing finished after the 2nd WW, people could look to their gardens to provide visual interest and not just food, so flowers and shrubs were planted once more.
Today the cottage garden retains its popularity. One approach is the traditional, smaller scale artisan style – creating the garden as you go along, often dividing, collecting seed and gratefully receiving gifts of cuttings or plants from neighbours or friends. Others prefer the more designed approach, with carefully planned borders and precisely laid paths, perhaps in a larger scale setting.
Cherry Tree Cottage Garden
The Museum’s records show that Cherry Tree Cottage and its adjacent open space were created in the 1850’s, probably to house elderly couples (‘no longer of child-bearing age’) from the main Workhouse. It seems that it may have actually housed three couples with a shared kitchen/dining room. The open space was probably just a yard used for sitting or exercise and there is no evidence of it being planted with flowers or vegetables. In 1932, the cottage housed Workhouse staff and it is during this period that possibly a garden was introduced.
The current garden was created in the 1980’s by a team of volunteer gardeners, some of whom are still volunteering today! Mary Manning created the original design to demonstrate a typical cottage garden of the 1900’s, and this was based on extensive research, including the local Women’s Institute. Their members’ memories were used in the garden to reflect the Cottage, which had been set out to resemble a 1912 interior. Later changes in the cottage were also reflected in the garden and today it aims to show how a typical 1930’s rural cottage garden would have looked and been gardened. It includes:
Flower borders – traditional cottage garden plants such as lupins, asters, rambling roses and Buddleja. The snowdrops (Galanthus plicatus) derive from bulbs brought back from the Crimean War in the 1850’s by a Captain Aldington who was from near Swaffham. His mother gave some to a friend in Warham where it is said the local rector, Charles Digby, grew them in the Church yard – they became known as the Warham Snowdrop. This variety is still available today. More recently some heritage daffodils from the 1800’s have been planted in the garden.
Cherry Tree Cottage and some of the vegetable growing area (left)
Vegetable Crops – the early vegetable plots grew a wide range of crops and some old seed varieties of pea (‘Simpsons Special’) and broad beans (‘Big Penny’) ‘were acquired from celebrity gardener Percy Thrower and a local retired gardener respectively. The museum ha some old seed catalogues from two local seed merchants – Daniels and Taylors – and these have been used to research the varieties that might have been grown in the 1930’s. Many of the varieties of fruit and vegetables that were grown in the 1930’s can be seen in the garden today. Garden Organic and The Heritage Seed Library have donated many of the seeds.
Herbs – a range of well known herbs are grown in the garden today. Herbs were used both for flavouring food and medicinal uses – for example a paste made from Comfrey leaves would be used to aid the healing of broken bones hence its common name of ‘Country Knit Joint’!
The garden also houses a chicken run, as it was common for many cottagers to keep chickens , which gave them a good supply of eggs. The chicken manure was also used as a fertiliser on the vegetable plot.
The garden paths were originally grass edged with flint. These were gradually replaced with bricks, local tiles (‘pamments’) and cinder; traditional methods used in cottage gardens. Todays paths are a mix of brick, pamments and gravel – the latter is easier to maintain and is more accessible for wheelchair users.
The Potato Clamp and Scarecrow at Cherry Tree Cottage Garden
Whilst the gardening volunteers are trying to follow gardening practices typical of the 1930’s, sometimes these have to be avoided (e.g avoiding the use of dangerous pesticides). But some interesting examples of old techniques have been demonstrated – for example the creation of a ‘Potato clamp’ which was a method for storing potatoes during the winter months before indoor storage space became more readily available.
Acknowledgement: I am grateful to Kay Davis, Heritage Gardening Trainee 2011-12, for permission to use her article on Cherry Tree Cottage for most of the material used in this post.
Sources and further information:
Plantax 3: Sweet Peas- cottage garden favourite
Unique heritage gardens at Norfolk museum
Old Workhouse Garden a wildlife oasis at Norfolk Museum
Quizzicals:
answers to the two in previous post Transfer Window- 7 tips for successful seedlings –
- Set fire to Ms Allen – Torch lily
- Mythical creature that enjoys a game of cards – Snapdragon
Here are a couple of gardening ditties….
Snowdrops keep falling on my head
Theme tune from The Lone Hydrangea
(with thanks to Les Palmer)
Old School Gardener
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Old School Garden 