Gardening

Every child needs frequent and regular opportunities to garden. We need to move away from thinking that a gardening club and providing gardening as an alternative curriculum for children not managing classroom work is a whole school approach. Instead, gardening can be a core outdoor experience for each class. This does not have to be onerous or high-commitment. A focus linked to the interests of the children, creative themes such as “growing your dream” or linked to a project such as minibeasts can be a lot more fun than feeling you have to maintain the school veg patch.

Growing plants is magic. Biodiversity is brilliant as you see a patch of ground come to life. It’s a place of experimentation, observations and investigations. It is a fundamental part of helping children learn about positive steps they can take to tackle climate change. As much as possible follow the children’s lead. If they want to grow a particular plant or try something then do this. Child-initiated and child-led projects appear to have greater impact on the memories created and the value of what has been learned.

Also gardening can grow into a life-long passion. This may not be apparent in childhood but is the sort of activity that connects us all to the land and eventually the fingers begin to become green and begin to itch again. in adulthood. Every garden kept that is not hard landscaped into a driveway can play a vital community role as part of a whole watershed approach to managing floods and reducing the impact of flash flooding.

Many of these 50+ blog posts are now quite dated but still feel relevant. In particular, the schools have moved on and changed, so these posts capture a moment in time rather than current practice! It is worth exploring other pages of the blog posts such as Developing Outdoor Spaces and Nature Play and Learning. These contain posts that have strong connections to gardening and vice versa.

Getting started

• Wee green fingers. A list of plants for different places that will grow in Scotland and support biodiversity, pollination and other plan needs.
• Kickstarting a whole school approach to gardening. A simple approach that requires soil and a trug or small container for each class. Children are actively involved in planning, designing and planting up the trug.
• A wonderful wildlife garden. Fantastic example from RSPB Mersehead in Dumfries & Galloway with a series of tips for schools. This is a useful read before beginning anything too ambitious or posh.
• Zen gardens – a reflection. Another useful entry point into creating and maintaining a garden as well as link to mindfulness, meditation and other wellbeing approaches. You can create large Zen gardens but these also work well as individual trays outside or in.
• Do you have a poisonous plant in your school grounds? Practical advice about potentially harmful plants and positive management approaches. Should help with concerns and myth-busting.
• Plants, containers and raised beds. If you are thinking about going for this type of gardening, read this first!

Whole school approaches to gardening

• Gardening at Inveraray Primary School. An example of a whole-school approach that really involved the whole community.
• A celebration of biodiversity at Inverary Primary School. Gardening is THE way to increase biodiversity and range of gardening projects – scroll down to see the habitat creation projects.
• Communities and gardening. Inspirational example of vulnerable adults involved in a gardening project on the Island of Barra.
• Achnasheen Primary – making the changes. This was my second experience of developing a school ground and the focus was learning how to integrate permaculture principles into the design process and to actively involve the children in the whole process. It was a very good learning experience, even if far from perfect.
• Westpark Nursery – an evolution not a revolution. Be a tortoise not a hare. Slow and steady ensures an embedded approach to gardening.

This video taken of Westpark Nursery outdoor space shows the development of their asphalt area and how they have taken creative approaches to embedding gardening, improving the biodiversity and greening the outdoor space – all on a shoestring budget!

Integrating gardening into the curriculum

• The art of plant study outside. Using a range of resources to create representations of plant functions and structures. Highly valuable alternative or precursor to the ubiquitous worksheet.
• Garden labels of love. Making the act of labelling a garden or outdoor space a creative opportunity that ignites children’s imagination.
• The best in the show. Examples of miniature gardens that should fire your children’s imagination!
• The biblical garden. These are uncommon but provide interesting food for thought particularly for schools linked to churches. Every plant and gardening area has a biblical connection.
• A crocus labyrinth. This wonderful example from Cruickshank Botanic Garden shows the possibilities of a springtime temporary labyrinth. Many other options exist and exploring labyrinths is a wonderful opportunity to link Heath and Wellbeing with Religious and Moral Education.
• The Pansy Project. This is perhaps one of the most poignant art and guerrilla gardening projects that acknowledges homophobic and transphobic abuse. Perhaps more appropriate for secondary schools but every educator should visit this post and website for greater understanding.
• Fairy gardens and literacy. A miniature world such as a fairy garden can be an ideal setting for children to create their own settings and narratives. Although the blog post is EY in focus, this is relevant for all primary ages too.
• Death, decay and new life. Using rosebay willow herb to illustrate the life cycle of a plant.
• Plant ID in a parallel universe. Photo Booth comes alive using the mirror line function to make plant identification with a difference.

Habitat creation

• 8 easy minibeast habitats that young children can make: “Skinted not minted” ways of increasing homes and therefore biodiversity in your outdoor space.
• Minibeast hotels and other residences. A blog post showcasing a range of different options – it doesn’t need to be the “same old, same old” ideas.
• Log piles – creating a flourishing wildlife community. The old-fashioned log pile remains a free or low cost option for improving biodiversity. This blog post explains how to make one, where to put it and how to care for it.
• A bird feeding garden. A naturalised approach that is based upon how birds feed in the wild created by wild gardening expert and former RSPB officer Ella McLellan.
• Red squirrels. Advice from a red squirrel officer and a look a squirrel proof bird feeders.
• Play stumps. This blog post focuses on the play value but there is also high habitat value if the stumps are left alone.
• Ponds in schools. Some examples and things to consider before embarking on a creating your own.
• Making a pond from a tyre. Useful approach to making a small scale pond to learn the ropes. So much easier than a big project!
• 8 ways to re-use your Christmas Tree – real trees whether rooted or cut can be retired outside and found a second lease of life.
• Just an old shed? Look again. A gardening shed can be a good place to store gardening kit but this is a good example of how to theme it using homemade resources that can help improve its biodiversity.
• Composting! Yes this is a wonderful habitat for a range of minibeasts as well as creating free compost for your garden. You may also want to integrate this into a wider worm project or even a simple sing song.
• Confessions of a worm worrier. Composting with worms. A bit of a knack was needed to get this up and running but the quality of the compost and worm juice was excellent.
• QUICKBLOCKS. Where Duplo meets gardening so that raised beds and other growing features can be created in an instant, designed and put together by children.

Willow structures

• Willow structures in school grounds. Providing lots of mouthwatering photos and reasons why every school needs plenty of willow for play, learning and wildlife.
• Wonderful willow ideas from the Coombes School. This school uses the willow as an interdisciplinary project.
• Creating DIY tree baskets from willow. Got some spare willow or dogwood? Need to protect your saplings from damage? Then why not consider tree baskets as a DIY form of protection. Also works for raised beds.
• Willow lattice arches and panels. This is not a gardening post but I think being able to make connections between uses of plants and to see them growing is important.

Simple gardening-related projects

• Re-using paper – origami seed packets. Great way to use newspapers, magazines or old book pages to store collected seed. Guerrilla reading!
• Repurposing books into seed packets. When you have old library and books that are no longer fit for purpose, then give them a new lease of life to store seeds.
• DIY clipboard flower press. This is an uber quick approach to ensuring a whole class of children can have their own flower press. Since writing this post, I’ve even ditched the clipboard and just used cardboard and elastic bands.

Gardening and foraging recipes

• Foraging for fruit – a way to love gardening. Supporting children to find and eat food safely outside – with a handy download for off-site foraging.
• Nettle soup – a wonderful way of foraging and using young spring nettle leaves for a tasty soup. Just leave plenty of nettles for wildlife and other uses such as cord.
• Garlic mustard pesto. A lovely spring-time recipe that children can make from gathered garlic mustard.
• The soapwort experiment. How to create a natural and traditional alternative to using soap. The plant is a vigorous weed so useful in a container where it can be cropped year after year.
• How to make a seed bomb. A recipe of a different sort – to support the scattering of seeds 🙂
• Hawthorn fruit leather. Creating tasty snacks using an ancient drying technique that provided an essential supply of vitamin C in winter months.
• Making rosehip syrup. An old wartime recipe that helped keep the nation healthy owing to the high quantity of vitamin C found in roseehips.

Random posts

• Pallets for repurposing and play. Simple, rustic ideas that can be adapted for use in school grounds and ELC outdoor spaces with a bit of thought and care. This post looks at mainly gardening uses of pallets.
• Check out this greenhouse. An indoor example of growing linked to visits to a nearby park!
• The forbidden fun of a compost bin. Children tend to perceive empty compost bins as a loose part that’s fair game to use if left lying around.
• Environmental services – support for schools. What support is your local council offering schools and nurseries? You may be surprised at the range of offerings once you have taken a closer look.
• Woozy wasps. A few stinging comments and some sensible advice.

Gardening books and websites worth visiting

• The Wildlife Trust. Lots of advice sheets for all sorts of wildlife habitats
• Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has a whole section on gardening for wildlife
• Eco Schools Scotland. Your children’s work can be recognised through an Eco Schools Award.
• The Royal Horticultural Society have lots of advice about gardening and a specific schools section.

There are many other local and brilliant gardening websites, blogs and other information out there! It’s worth a search as gardening does rely on local knowledge.