Ideas for this half term

Seed Sowing

Obviously you can plant any vegetable seeds in your school garden, but often the summer holidays come right in the middle of harvest time. Here is a list of vegetables which are more suitable to grow in schools due to their speed of growth and time of harvest and their ‘fun’ factor. It is also nice to have vegetables growing that can be ‘grazed’ whilst working in the garden.

Radish: very quick to grow – 4 weeks from seed to harvest. Good to eat raw.
Courgette: prolific plants, you can almost see them grow. Good to eat raw and cooked.
Salad leaves: Lettuce, rocket, mizuna – grow quickly and leaves can be picked and eaten as they grow.
Spring onion: Grow quickly and can be eaten raw.
Potatoes: Good fun to harvest – like finding buried treasure! Can be left over summer holidays.
Peas: Can be planted early to be harvested before summer holidays. Delicious and fun to eat raw.
Pumpkins: Grow throughout the summer holidays and are ready to harvest in the autumn – great fun!
Sprouting broccoli: a good plant to leave to mature over winter, ready to harvest in the spring.
Strawberries: always a favourite with children.
Runner beans: easy to grow and very prolific. Good to eat raw when young.
Tomatoes: Cherry varieties are lovely for children to eat straight from the plant, but tomatoes need more care than some plants.
Carrots: fun to grow and eat, especially when young. Need to have good deep soil with no stones.
Sweetcorn: Good to grow as part of the 3 sisters group.
Swiss Chard: fantastic plants that can be harvested all year – eat young leaves raw or cook like spinach.
Garlic: very easy to grow and it’s easy to make garlic bread!
Leeks: Can be left over winter to mature – ready late winter and spring.
Herbs (parsley, basil, thyme): good as examples of companion plants and have interesting smells and tastes.
Sunflowers: a traditional children’s favourite and the seeds can be eaten and/or saved.
Nasturtiums: sprawling edible flowering plant, good as a companion plant to attract beneficial insects. The leaves and flowers are edible and have a bit of a bite!
Calendula/pot marigold: good companion plant with edible flowers (petals only).

It is a good idea to get some seeds started before Easter so that you can get some good harvests before the summer holidays begin. Carrots, early peas, broad beans, beetroot and radishes can all be planted outside in March. Tomatoes could be sown in trays inside in a warm place which has plenty of light. Other seeds could be planted in trays inside at the beginning of April to give them a head start, but make sure someone can look after them over the holidays! Otherwise, they can be planted outside as soon as you return.
Experiment: Why not try to conduct experiments with the sowing of seeds? Get the class to design a fair test to see which seed varieties have the fastest or highest germination rate.This also brings in mathematical concepts such as percentages and fractions.

Potato planting

You can buy seed potatoes from garden centres and there are many different varieties. Potatoes should be put out to chit very soon – this means putting the potatoes in a cool (but not too cold), light place.You can place them in egg boxes or trays with their eyes uppermost in the light.These eyes will produce shoots which are the beginning of the potato plant, so take care not to knock them off.
After 2 or 3 weeks, the potatoes should be ready to plant. Plant the spuds in rows about 60cm apart, placing each tuber with the shoots facing up in holes about 15cm deep and 25-30 cm between tubers. If you plant 'first earlies' in March you could get a crop of new potatoes in June/July. Otherwise, wait until you come back after Easter to plant a maincrop variety. These can be left over the summer holidays to harvest in September when you come back.

Harvesting and recipe ideas

Over-wintered crops such as purple sprouting broccoli and winter/spring cauliflowers should be ready to harvest now.
Purple sprouting broccoli is delicious just lightly steamed with melted butter and salt and pepper.
If you don’t have any over-wintered crops, there are edible plants in the wild that are delicious to eat! Nettles are a favourite of mine at this time of year - when the new, tender, fresh plants come up, pinch off the tops, (use gloves unless you have tough fingers!) wash and steam until they are well wilted. Then sautee in butter and add salt and pepper to taste – a fantastic spring tonic!