Gardens are fun because they are always changing,’ it is declared in the book Errol’s Gardenby Gillian Hibbs. Like Errol and his neighbours, children, staff and families at south London’s The Grove Nursery School all contributed and were excited to continue developing their gardening space and plan what to plant this year.
‘It’s great for the children that they can identify with the book because what Errol is doing is very much what they’re doing – starting from scratch with little pots to now planting a whole garden,’ says lead teacher Sarah Maskell. ‘We’re learning about gardening alongside the children and I think it’s good for the children to see that we can learn together and that we learn from our mistakes too.
‘We’ve been looking at gardening books to help plan our garden and have been thinking about different vegetables that we can grow. Last year it was exciting even though we didn’t grow much of anything. Hopefully this year we’ll be more successful.’
PLANTING THE SEED
Last year, staff made a raised growing bed with the children from some old wood. They also repurposed a disused guinea pig run into a growing area by filling it with soil. This year, they are expanding their growing areas by also using a large storage box and the former guinea pig hutch.
Recently, the nursery received a large delivery of soil on the back of a lorry. ‘The children got involved with their spades, wheelbarrows and trollies,’ says Sarah. ‘They were digging the delivered soil out of the big bags and taking it to the planting areas. At the end of the day a dad stayed to help fill the containers with his son.’
Children and staff are jointly planning what to grow. ‘We’ve learned and are planning for the whole year and looking at when best to plant different seeds rather than planting things all at once like we did last year,’ says Sarah. ‘We’re aiming to grow around 20 different vegetables throughout the year. We are looking at what is easy to grow and will come up quickly, such as salad leaves and radishes.’
Along with growing vegetables that are popular with the children, including carrots and broccoli, staff want to introduce them to varieties that they may not be familiar with, such as rainbow chard and spinach. They also want to demonstrate different growing processes, from propagating seedlings indoors to directly putting seeds in the ground.
At the moment they are growing beans to coincide with reading Jack and the Beanstalk and, later in the year, they plan on growing pumpkins. ‘We proudly grew one last year and we will be using the seeds from that to hopefully grow more,’ says Sarah.
INVOLVING FAMILIES
Like Errol, the children attending The Grove live in a densely urban area and many do not have gardens. Families are being invited in to the nursery to help with the gardening and ongoing maintenance of the area to make it more of a family and community project.
Staff have also sent growing packs home with the children so that they can experience the joy of growing at home. ‘We want the children to know that growing is not just something that happens in nursery,’ explains Sarah. ‘It’s nice for families to go on that journey with them too and it makes the children’s learning more holistic.’
Errol uses an array of objects to plant things in, from mugs and bowls to saucepans and even a tea pot, and staff are encouraging children to recycle, reuse and repurpose containers too. ‘Last year, parents emailed in photos of what the children had grown. One child grew a bean in a hot chocolate pot,’ says Claire. ‘It’s showing children that you can start from very small, on a window sill or balcony like Errol did and then expand.’
The packs include suggestions of growing experiments they can conduct as a family, including sprouting carrot tops on saucers and seeing how seeds grow differently in dark and light areas.
FUTURE PLANS
Staff would like to use an old tyre and dig a pond to see what creatures may be attracted to the nursery garden.
The Grove has received a Cleaner Greener Safer capital grant, which staff plan to use to create a ‘feel-good garden’. ‘We’ve done a lot of work around supporting children with their emotions and feelings and want to create a place where children can go for calm time,’ explains Claire. ‘The garden is going to be very sensory with a water feature, wind chimes, mirrors and plants that they can touch and smell.’
They have established links with a local allotment to benefit from the gardeners’ expertise, but there are also plans to take groups of children there. There are even bee hives and chickens rescued from factory farming for the children to see and learn about the lifecycle of animals in an ethical way.
WHAT THEY ARE LEARNING
‘Children love watering the plants and watching them grow,’ says Claire. ‘Through gardening they are learning more about what is needed for plants to grow and where our food comes from. They are learning so much through being hands-on and doing practical activities.’
Sarah says the children’s questions often lead on to them researching answers and all learning more. ‘Last year we became quite good at identifying different vegetables,’ she says. ‘There were lots of plants that had flowers, but then we learned about male plants and female plants and how you need a balance of them to get the vegetables.’
Claire adds, ‘But, because there were lots of flowers from the marrows, pumpkins, courgettes and potatoes, the children learned that not just flowers have flowers but vegetables have them too.’
While gardening, children are learning that everything that buzzes past is not necessarily a bee and are finding out about different insects. Unfortunately, last year caterpillars feasted on the broccoli, but the children saw the eggs and witnessed the butterfly’s lifecycle.
Last year, highlights were eating the tiny potatoes at snack time, saving the leaves from the frost-killed cauliflower for the chef to cook as spring greens and ceremoniously washing the one full-sized courgette under the mud kitchen tap. Purple sprouting broccoli is currently thriving and the children and staff are hoping for more produce this year.
book corner
Errol’s Garden by Gillian Hibbs
A heart-warming tale about how one small boy’s dream of a garden unites a diverse community.
The Secret Sky Garden by Linda Sarah and Fiona Lumbers
Funni loves the old, disused car park, and spends a lot of time there flying her kite, but something is missing. She decides to create a garden. As her flowers bloom, so does a very special friendship.
The Extraordinary Gardener by Sam Boughton
Joe lives in a pretty ordinary tower block. His world is grey. Then one day he decides to plant a seed on his balcony and inspires his
neighbourhood to also start gardening.
Bloom by Anne Booth and Robyn Owen Wilson
A lovely tale about the impact of our words on others and the importance of being kind, told through a girl’s caring relationship with a flower.
Oliver’s Vegetables by Vivian French and Alison Bartlett
Do you like chips? Oliver does. In fact, he won’t eat anything else until he plays a game with his grandpa. Whatever vegetable Oliver finds in the garden, he must eat…
The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle
This is the story of how a tiny seed grows into a beautiful flower.
Jasper’s Beanstalk by Nick Butterworth and Mick Inkpen
Jasper plants a bean. How long will he have to wait before he can start looking for giants?