At the Busy Bees Nursery at the University of Salford they have dug, planted, watered and weeded and are now enjoying fresh fruit and vegetables harvested from their own outdoor area.
Nursery manager Susan Maloney said they had the idea for an allotment after a nutritionist visited the nursery to talk about healthy eating.
Ms Maloney said, 'We started off growing beans and seeds in indoor pots but our nutritionist, Ady Delaney, and his colleague, Gary Wright, suggested that the children could get more involved if we had a proper garden.'
Nursery staff chose an area outside the nursery kitchen as the site of the new allotment. The children helped to plant a range of fruit and vegetables, including beetroot, turnips, cabbage, tomatoes, garlic, courgettes and strawberries.
'Our nursery cook, Zoe, is very enthusiastic about the allotment,' said Ms Maloney. 'She uses the food to prepare fresh, healthy menus and the children have made dishes themselves with beans and cress.
'It is not just about promoting healthy eating. It's also about educating the children about where food comes from.'
The allotment has been so successful that the nursery find that sometimes it grows too much to use. When this happens the produce is sold and money put aside to buy seeds for next year. 'It's a way of putting everything back into the soil,' said Ms Maloney.