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.