At Gunthorpe Primary School, we have been busy gardening as we hope to take food from our garden to our table!

We have been learning how to use garden equipment like rakes, trowels, spades and wheelbarrows. Using these tools, we have prepared our garden beds for planting.

We have used our polytunnel to sow a variety of fruit and vegetable seeds in order to grow our own food. We have also sown flower seeds to encourage insects to visit our garden and pollinate our crops.

We have been harvesting lettuce and mange tout, nibbling on mint and spring onions and watching which seeds germinate the fastest in our garden.

So far we have planted; lettuce, strawberries, peas, broadbeans, brassicas, sunflowers, tomatoes, potatoes, peppers… and too many flowers to name!

We have planted Clary Sage and Sweet Peas in our Solar Dome which we have been transforming into a calming space for pupils and staff to use - a zen den!

We have fabulous plans for our beautiful Willow Hedge. Students will be learning how to harvest and dry willow to weave with. Using gallopers and tape measures, students will harvest willow in the winter and categorise it appropriately by size before bundling it to dry out in preparation for weaving with it the following year. We are also using our Willow arch as a support for our Butternut Squash Pumpkins to grow over!

Pupils can be overheard shouting out to their friends to inspect an insect that they have found whilst gardening! We often relocate them to our bug hotel. Ladybirds are a favourite! As are worms - a gardeners best friend! We have been learning about worms and their function in healthy soil. A wormery is on our school garden wish-list. We already have a compost pile that we aerate regularly. Layering it with green and brown layers of compostable garden waste.

We look forward to eating plenty of our produce over the coming months.

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