RHS Benchmark Scheme Progress

We have continued to work towards RHS level 3 as weather has allowed!! In the picture above, Eve and a (reluctant) Faith are measuring the raised bed. It was 3m20cm by 1m Eve said and she marked it out on a sketch of the bed and then set to work designing the veg planting plan, using symbols for the different veggies that we want to grow, and writing names alongside them. 

We have spent quite a bit of time talking about what we would like to plant, each member of the family has had their own input. I want to grow sweetcorn, courgette and spinach, Dewi wants to grow runner beans and lettuces, Eve wants to grow snap peas and strawberries and Faith wants carrots and radishes. I think that the girl's choices are swayed by previous years when we have grown the same. The veg beds become an outdoor larder for them with the girls harvesting baby carrots and snap peas for a quick munch whenever they feel peckish. It is rare that we ever actually cook any carrots or snap peas from our garden!! As well as talking about what we wanted to plant, we talked about where to put it. I had thought about going through the principles of 'square foot gardening' with Eve but it is fairly technical with spacings for each plant and I didn't want to dim her enthusiasm for planning it out by making it into a chore! Eve was confident that tall plants needed to go at the back of the bed and smaller ones at the front so that they all got adequate sunshine. I only made one tweak to her plan, which was that the sweetcorn plants needed to go in a block rather than a row or they wouldn't produce any ears of corn! I'm going to wait a little to introduce the idea of successional sowing and planting out later in the year in spaces vacated by summer veg, I think that that lesson will happen naturally!

As soon as the temperatures came up a bit more, we planted out the long-overdue sunflowers and snap peas that were still on the lounge windowsill begging for more space! Faith carefully spread hers out by placing the biodegradable pots equal distances apart by eye along the back of the bed.......

She dug a deep enough hole.......

.......made some tears on the bottom of the pot to help the roots make progress downwards.......

....... and carefully firmed the soil around the little pots before watering them in.................

This is Eve working at the front of the bed, carefully planting each pea plant after spreading them out along the bed at equal distances. She has plans to put the nasturtiums (edible flowers for salads etc) in between the peas, and has elected not to stake them as she plans for them to tumble over the side instead. I think this is a good idea and is based on previous year's observations where our pea plants have done very nicely tumbling around without support of any kind!

I am recording this as evidence of section one (some children are participating in the design of the garden), section three (the garden being used as a resources to teach more than one curriculum subject - measuring and areas in working out the size of the bed), and as evidence of the children carrying out gardening skills. 

Taking Part in the RHS Benchmark Scheme

I chatted to the staff at the RHS stand in the Education Show earlier in the month and they were keen for us to sign up and work through the Benchmark Scheme. At first read through it appears VERY school orientated and it is, because it was designed for schools to encourage them to get children gardening. After reading the criteria for each level, I emailed them and double checked that we were OK to take part as a home educating family as the rewards for completing each level are fantastic. They replied that we were fine to continue on to level three which is about where we are at with our gardening, so we're off, I will ask about level four later. They understand that a family won't have the same evidence as a school and asked that I made it clear when I sent the evidence in that we were an HE family so they could review it accordingly! As I like to be an organised bod, I cut and pasted the information for level 3 into a table in a slightly adapted format to suit HE, and left space to jot down notes and plans for gathering the required evidence, most of which can be photographs at this stage. You can download the level three record sheet from google docs, you just need a google account to access it!

Today we re-potted the sunflower and pea seedlings that we planted at the beginning of March, (thinking that they would be out of doors by now). Unfortunately the continued snow and icy temperatures have meant that they are still on the lounge windowsill and struggling in the egg boxes and ice cream cones that they were sowed into. The girls handled the seedlings very carefully and gently and they were re-potted into recycled cardboard pots donated by Granny and Grandpa!

We also sowed some nasturtiums into the same pots, I have tried and failed to grow these edible flowers before but have wanted to bring some more flowers into our veg gardening for colour, variety and pest control purposes, so fingers crossed this time! the big raised bed that we have is perfect for nasturtiums to trail over the edge, they will look pretty.

I am collecting our photographic evidence here as we document our other home ed ventures here!! I am putting today's activities down against section one (raising funds through various channels) as I think donations of resources are in the same vein as fund raising, section two (gardening sustainably) as all our seedlings are housed in biodegradable and recycled/recyclable containers, and section three (skills progressing, and working together) as they repotted seedlings, handling them appropriately and worked as a team dividing jobs and resources to complete the task.