Green Schools
Sustainable schools
grow their own
The government wants all schools to be
turf before digging. Use the blade planting. Before planting, build a
of your spade to cut up the turf raised frame around your vegeta-
sustainable by 2020. Former headteacher Steve into squares and slide your spade ble bed.
Mynard offers practical advice on making that
underneath each square to lift it
up. Stack the turf upside down in Build a raised bed
happen in your school with a look at vegetable
a corner under black plastic – this Grow your vegetables in raised
growing and the problems of composting
will turn into a very useful loamy beds with long strips of soil, and
soil in a couple of years, which you with paths in between. There
can then use to make your own are advantages to this approach.
T
he world is going to look ing compost to feed those plants, potting compost. Children are less likely to step on
very different in 20 years’ brings an important reality to the You will need to double dig the soil and this prevents it from
time. As the oil runs out, curriculum. your soil. This involves digging becoming compacted, which
countries will have to look at Many schools are now growing out a trench across your plot. affects root growth. Raised beds
producing food locally rather vegetables on a small scale as part Make this one spade deep and one warm up quicker in the spring and
than importing it. As landfill sites of the Eco-Schools Programme.
fill up, society will have to con- Some schools are taking that a step
sider more rational ways of deal- further and establishing a vegeta-
ing with waste. ble bed for each class so that chil-
“Understanding the lifecycle of plants
This is all about taking respon- dren can develop their green-fin-
through growing fruit and vegetables
sibility for the way we live our gered skills as they move through
lives. In your school you can the school. Here’s how to do it.
brings an important reality to the
initiate these changes by giving
children the essential life skills of Dig a vegetable bed curriculum”
the future. Understanding the life- With the children using string and
cycle of plants through the grow- sticks, measure out a rectangle
ing of fruit and vegetables, and that is 3m long by 1m wide. If this spade wide and put the soil into they allow you to plant your crops
waste management through mak- is on your school field, cut off the a wheelbarrow. Break up the soil closer together, which increases
in the bottom of the trench with yield. They also allow children
Fun and Funky Storage for
a fork to another spade’s depth. to gain access to the crop from
Now dig out the next trench and all sides for sowing, weeding and
fill the first trench with this soil. harvesting, and they also look well
Bikes and Scooters!
Break up the soil in the bottom of organised, thus helping the overall
the second trench. Once you have aesthetics of your vegetable gar-
progressed all the way up the bed, den.
use the soil in the wheelbarrow to You will need four planks of
fill the final trench. pressure-treated timber measur-
As you are digging, break up ing 15cm wide by 2.5cm deep.
the soil into clods and then smash Try your local timber yard or agri-
them up into smaller pieces with cultural merchants for these, as
a blow from the back of your these will be cheaper than the DIY
fork. Pick out any weed roots and store. Old floorboards are perfect
stones. The weed roots can go in if you can get hold of them. Two
your compost bin and the stones of these planks need to be 3m long
can go on the path around your for forming the sides of your beds.
vegetable bed. Hoe the soil into a The other two should measure 1m
fine tilth and rake it over ready for in length and are for the ends of
Tel: 0845 0940490
Email: info@cyclepods.co.uk
Website: www.minipods.co.uk
Raised beds give children easier access to take care of the plants
22
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