Growing vegetables, growing people

Our aims

To look at different ways of teaching vegetable growing techniques

To provide a platform for discussion on workshop techniques

To increase participant’s knowledge of vegetable growing

Participants will:

Experience a range of teaching techniques to try with adults or children

Have time to try out and look at different resources available

Our course with adults is a full day in late spring and we would do much more practical outside – participants would sow a whole raised bed in our student plots including soil preparation and measuring out.

We have modified this session because of time and season.

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Theories on learning

It is thought that different people learn in different ways and there are different theories to try and put learners into categories. These may be simplistic, but thinking about them will help us plan a more balanced training course.

One theory (VAK) = 3 examples of effective learning techniques:

Visual learning techniques, eg diagrams; flipchart use; slides or dvds; posters; displays

Auditory, eg talk; listen and discuss; dvd; stories/anecdotes; music; listening activities outside

Kinaesthetic, eg role play; try something out for yourself; model building; moving about the room; team work; going outside

If you plan a workshop and try to include examples from each of these groups of techniques you will hopefully please everyone (maybe not all at the same time, eg how many of us like role play????)

On planning a lesson:

Best advice to me was have 3 reasons why you have chosen an activity (Sheila Fraser) – this means you think through each thing and check your objectives. This way, if you are challenged you can justify your activity with the reasons.

Eg our reasons for what we have just done:

Icebreaker and getting you all talking to each other

For us to find out participants level of experience

  • For us to clarify our aims and objectives and to discuss them with participants

There is research to show that if you give the opportunity for reflection on learning in your workshop that the learning impact will be deeper.

Including things like an icebreaker and opportunities for reflection may mean that you don’t cover quite as much subject matter, but the learners overall experience may be better.

Continuum

Boredom______Stress

need to find the balance

This learning triangle is from the Critical Skills course and also gives some things to think about.

We want you to think about how we went about structuring our workshop today as we go.

Why did we choose the activities and put them in a certain order?

There will be an opportunity at the end to think about:

  • Your favourite teaching/learning techniques
  • Any other approaches we could have taken
  • Anything we could have done better (as we are not experts and are only using our experience so far)

Pests and diseases

Scenario 1

You lift your carrots and see that they are strangely shaped!

What caused it?

What can you do about it?

How can you prevent it?

Scenario 2

Your carrots are not orange all over – what a shame!

What caused it?

What can you do about it?

How can you prevent it?

Scenario 3

The leaves are going red and wilting – they should be green all over!

What caused it?

What can you do about it?

How can you prevent it?

Scenario 4

When you lift your carrots you notice large cracks in them – oh dear!

What caused it?

What can you do about it?

How can you prevent it?

Home made sieve instructions

You will need:

  • A yoghurt pot or wide mascarpone/ ricotta tub
  • Old tangerine/lemon net etc
  • Scissors
  • Elastic band
  • PVA glue and spatula
  • Sellotape

Method

  • Cut off the bottom of the tub with scissors or craft knife.
  • If using a large yoghurt pot, it is a good idea to cut down the height of it, by about half.
  • Remove the label from the netting and double it over, so that the sieve has 2 layers of netting. If possible try to have the layers running in different directions.
  • Put the netting across the bottom of the pot and hold in place with the elastic band.
  • Apply the PVA glue on top of the elastic band and netting.
  • Finally wrap Sellotape around the netting and the pot.
  • Leave for 24 hours before using, to allow the glue to dry

Critical Skills Challenge: ‘All about carrots’ posters

Learning Outcome:
To find out as much as we can about carrots / Skills Targeted:
  • Group collaboration
  • Research skills
  • Clear presentation

Essential Knowledge/Question eg:

  • What are the reasons you would select different carrots?
  • What do you think will grow from the seed?
  • What are the jobs that you think you will need to do as the carrots grow, eg thinning, weeding, watering, and harvesting?
  • What problems might you encounter?

Challenge:

To produce a poster of A2 size to present your findings in 10 minutes

Equipment/information provided:

Paper/pens/seed catalogues/seed packets and seeds/glue/craft materials

Product Criteria:

Posters should be clear and instructive using:
  • Colour and pictures (visual)
  • Written descriptions

Process Criteria:

  • Group work – different roles (eg researcher; timekeeper; writer; reporter)
  • Ability to decide on important points and ways of presenting them together (collaboration and negotiation)

Facilitators notes:

  • Groups of 4 to make posters about carrots.
  • Give a time limit if necessary.
  • Explain criteria first and facilitators will encourage and answer questions if necessary.
  • Aim is to be a formative assessment of what is already known and what is learnt through research and where the learning needs to go next; process can also be used to evaluate learning after a project.
  • Peer review on completion will evaluate how well poster fulfils the criteria.

Vegetable Varieties for Small Plots

Beans

Broad beans: ‘Aquadulce Claudia’

  • Old variety.
  • Sow early spring/ November (latter ready to pick in late May/June).
  • High in protein and nitrogen fixing in soil, therefore the next crop will benefit. White beans. Pods to 25cm long.
  • Can grow in large pots/troughs with cane supports.

Dwarf French bean: ‘Purple Queen’

  • Purple pods turn green when cooked.

Runner bean: ‘Painted Lady’

  • Prettily patterned beans.
  • Need good moisture retentive soil; grow well in tyre stack with wigwam support, or in a large pot.
  • Sow seed indoors then plant out after frosts in April/May.
  • Ready to harvest July-Sept.
  • Lovely red and white blossoms.

Rainbow Swiss Chard: ‘Bright Lights’

  • Neon pink, orange, yellow, scarlet and green stems.
  • Pick off leaves when needed- baby leaves for salad and large ones to be cooked like spinach.

Carrots - Early varieties (good for short Scottish season and conditions):

‘Nantes 2’ (orange)

  • Sow under cloche in early February for a June crop or August. 16cm cylindrical root with a sweet flavour.

‘Amsterdam Forcing’ is the earliest variety to sow in spring.

‘Parabel’ has spherical small roots which are to be eaten whole. Who said all carrots were long?

‘Autumn King’

N.B. Look out for yellow varieties! (Did you know carrots were originally yellow?).

Radishes: e.g. ‘Scarlet Globe’ (round), ‘French Breakfast’

  • Very easy to grow for fast results (may crop in 30 days in summer).
  • Encourage kids to try once then find a friendly dad or rabbit who will eat the rest!

Courgettes

  • They need space to ramble. Great in tubs and troughs.
  • Edible flowers, delicious if deep fried.
  • Sow indoors from April - May and transplant outdoors after frosts.
  • Pick when 10-15cm long to encourage more to grow.
  • Water regularly in dry weather.

Spring onions: e.g. ‘White Lisbon’

  • Quick-growing, space savers.
  • Can sow early from mid Feb. onwards

Garlic

  • Nov-Feb plant cloves 15cm apart/in pots (NB early sowings give greatest yield).
  • Plant out as soon as you get the cloves or keep in a cool dry place..
  • Lift once the first 6 leaves have turned yellow and dry bulbs off in the sun/dry warm place (do the same for onions).

e.g. ‘Thermidrome’ / ‘Solent white’ for early planting in Nov. for July crop.

‘Printanor’ for later spring planting.

Onions: e.g. ‘Ailsa Craig’,

  • Buy as onion ‘sets’, i.e. small immature onions; each set forms one full-sized bulb to harvest.
  • Plant in spring to pick in autumn or mid Sept-mid Nov to be ready from mid June onwards.
  • Look out for red varieties, e.g.’ Electric’.

Tomatoes

  • Grow in grow-bags or large 30cm pots under glass or outside.
  • Pinch out tips of plants when enough trusses (fruiting shoots) have formed to stop them getting too big; use a stake to support.
  • Pinch out side shoots at the base of each truss to encourage fruiting.
  • Need lots of water and feeding (liquid seaweed is good or homemade comfrey/tea fertiliser).

Recommended tomato varieties:

Small: ‘Gardener’s Delight’ – cherry type red fruit; good flavour; grow under glass/ outside.

‘Tumbler’ - Trailing red cherry tomato great for hanging baskets or tubs.

Medium:‘Alicante’ – Good early crop; red flavoursome fruits.

‘Golden Sunrise’ – Yellow fruit.

Lettuce

  • Succession Planting-: sow every two weeks to give a steady supply.
  • Minimum maturity time = 6 weeks with good weather.
  • Thin out seedlings to approx. 15cm apart. Can transplant seedlings into another part of the garden when small unlike root veg.
  • Sow a pack of mixed salad greens in a small area or in pots/window boxes.
  • Some varieties may ‘bolt’ (i.e. flower and go to seed) in hot dry weather.
  • Leaf salad mixes often include red, Cos, oak-leaf, etc and can give variety in small spaces, e.g. pots.

Types of lettuce / Butterhead / Cos / Loose leaf
Summer
Varieties / ‘Tom Thumb’
Dwarf, compact.
Quickly forms hearts. / ‘Little Gem’
Matures fast.
Sweet flavour high in Vitamin C. / ‘Salad Bowl’
Crops fastest (as they don’t form hearts).
Harvest whole or a few leaves at a time.
Red variety is fun.
Winter Varieties / ‘Winter Density’
Slow to bolt.
Autumn sowing under cloche/glass.

NB: Cut and come again salad crops quickly and can be grown inside in pots. you can get at least 2 cuts before you need to sow more.

NB: If you choose hardy varieties of lettuce seeds can be sown in February in sheltered spots outside. Protect with a cut-off plastic bottle cloche until frosts are over.

Look through a good seed catalogue and experiment!

Winter Crops

  • Experiment with sowing in late summer/autumn for late autumn and winter crops.
  • Sow outside until frosts come. Try using plastic bottle cloches to keep going for longer. You may be surprised at how long things can grow out if winter is mild and the site is sheltered.
  • If vegetables run to seed let the seed dry on the plant until seed-heads are brown and ready to split and put into paper bags to collect seed.

Things to try:

  • Leaf salad mixes, e.g. red, cos, oak leaf lettuce, Fristina lettuce ‘Valdor’ or ‘Winter Density’

Sow outside or sow into large pots to keep inside, through winter. Cut regularly (when about 6cm high) with scissors, or handpick leaves and they will grow back. Eat as ‘baby salad’. If you don’t trim they turn woody, lose flavour and will eventually flower, but this is great if you want to show the full lifecycle of the plant.

  • Onion sets are small immature onions and can be planted in spring or late summer. Each set forms one full-sized bulb to harvest. Try varieties such as ‘Electric’ which is red. If planted mid-September to mid-November they will mature from the following June onwards.
  • Broad beans.

Sow in a sheltered position from late October through to January for picking in mid-June. Pinching out plant tops once in full flower will produce better pods and avoid black fly.

  • Garlic, e.g. ‘Solent Wight’

Plant in November for cloves in July and in March for late summer/autumn. Lift bulbs once the leaves turn yellow (like onions) and hang to dry.

  • Sugar snap peas

These are brilliant to grow in troughs with a little support to climb up. Plants stay small and are quick to crop so they are good to show the plant lifecycle. Keep sowing for a fresh supply year round and try inside in the cold winter months.

  • Perpetual spinach will grow all year round, but pick leaves regularly to prevent it going to seed.
  • Swiss Chard has survived outside for us and the ‘Bright Light’ variety have stunning neon pink, yellow and orange stems that children love.

Resources: Organisation Websites

WorldCarrotMuseum

/ Yippee!! From the history of carrots to carrots in fine art and growing guides this website celebrates the humble carrot.

HDRA (Henry Doubleday Research Association) - Free school club

/ A charity promoting organic growing techniques and heritage varieties.
Lots of information and activities including games for schools and adults wanting to grow their own.
Learning Through Landscapes (incorporating Grounds for Learning)
/ A national organisation giving advice on the greening and use of school grounds. Also organise National School Grounds Week with associated activities.
SNH (Scottish Natural Heritage)
/ ‘The Wee Green Fingers Pack’-
Download this lovely introduction pack to creating wildlife gardens for young children.
The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) school pages
/ Runs the free RHS Campaign for School Gardening. Join up here:

The Herb Society
/
An educational charity with free information on using herbs in the school grounds.

National Gardening Association, USA

/ Download their regular journal ‘Growing Ideas’ which tackles various topics to be explored in the classroom which can be adapted for use in the UK.
ChelseaPhysicGarden
/ ‘Shelf Life’ project – sustainability; plant uses; growing plants.
Eco Schools
/ How to make sustainability a part of your school ethos.

Resources: Books

Gardening for Early Years:

my flower, your flower
Author: Melanie Walsh
Publisher: Eden Project Book (2004)
ISBN: 978 1 903 91928 6 / Children’s book.
Spot the differences and similarities between plants and learn about the senses.
Gardening (activities for 3-5 year olds)
Author: Caroline Quin &Sue Pearce
Publisher: Brilliant Publications (1988)
ISBN: 1 897675 40 2 / Skills-based learning through gardening activities. Curriculum links and ideas for extension discussions.
Ben Plants a ButterflyGarden
Author: Kate Petty; Axel Scheffler
Publisher: Macmillan (2000)
ISBN: 0 333 78109 0 / Children’s story, lift- the-flap book.
Life cycle of a plant and also of butterflies.
Good back up book to introduce butterfly plants and a practical activity.
Jasper’s Beanstalk
Author: Nick Butterworth and Lick Inkpen
Publisher: Hodder Children’s Books (1993)
ISBN: 978 0 340 58634 1 / Children story book – links to Jack and the Beanstalk. Follow the growth of a bean.
Flora’s Flowers
Author: Debi Gliori
Publisher: Orchard Books (2002)
ISBN: 1 84121 038 2 / Fun story about what will grow and what won’t.
Ten Seeds
Author: Ruth Brown
Publisher:
ISBN:9780862648497 / A simple gardening countdown book with lovely illustrations.
The Little Book of Growing Things
Author: Sally Featherstone
Publisher: Featherstone Education (2007)
ISBN: 1 904187 68 4 / Lots of information in this small book written specially with the Early Years learning outcomes in mind.
Resources: Books (contd)
For Children (Primary Books)
Children’s Gardening
Author: Peter A. Please
Publisher: Horticultural Therapy
ISBN: 0952107406 / Teacher guide - a month-by-month guide to gardening activities in school. Practical, easy to follow instructions and inspiring! Cross-curricular.
Muck & Magic
Author: Jo Readman
Publisher: HDRA/Search
ISBN: 085532757 / Children’s book of projects to help them grow plants in an environmentally conscious way.
Ready, Steady, Grow!
Author: Royal Horticultural Society
Publisher: Dorling Kindersley (2010)
ISBN:978-1-40535-238-3 / Colourful Children’s book with lots of great projects and even recipes for the veg that you grow.
Growing Naturally (A Teacher’s guide to Organic Gardening)
Author: Maggi Brown
Publisher: Southgate Publishers
ISBN: 185741022 / Teacher guide - this booklet provides ideas and the background information to create an organic school garden.
Websitefor full Southgate catalogue:
EdibleGardens in Schools
Author: Rachel Sykes
Publisher: Southgate Publishers (2006)
ISBN: 9 781857 411065 /
For teachers - the booklet is divided into terms to cover topics of growing food and gives clear learning objectives.
CD has worksheets and further teacher’s instructions.
Learning about life cycles
(using an organic garden)
Author: Ian Mitchell & Allan Randall
Publisher: Southgate Publishers (2002)
ISBN: 1 85741 079 3 / Booklet contains 20 units with activity worksheets and teacher’s notes and looks at the plant life cycle through teaching outdoors.
Gardening with Children
Author: Hannemann and co
Publisher: BrooklynBotanic Garden (2007)
ISBN: 1 889538 30 2 / American planting times, but can be adjusted for use in the UK. Lots of background info and experiments.
The Gardening Book
Author: Jane Bull
Publisher: Dorling Kindersley
ISBN: 0-7513-6473-8 / Fun activity-packed colourful book for Early Years and primary.
How does your garden grow?
Author: Clare Matthews
Publisher: Octopus Publishing Group (2005)
ISBN: 0 600611418 / Lots of arts and crafts in this book
For adults
Grow your own Vegetables
Author: Joy Larkcom

Publisher:Frances Lincoln

ISBN:071121963X / Years of experience packed into this paperback. No pictures, but the text is comprehensive and easy to read. She is the queen of organic vegetable growing!
Dr D.G.Hessayon’s ExpertSeries
e.g. ‘The Vegetable & Herb Expert’ / This is a good introduction to vegetable growing. Contains useful keys to vegetable pests and diseases.
Grow your own veg
Author: Carol Klein
Publisher: Mitchell Beazley (2007)
ISBN:9781845332938 / Nice book to read on a winter evening as you dream of the growing season ahead!
Salad Leaves for all seasons
Author: Charles Dowding
Publisher: Green Books (2008)
ISBN: 97819003221 / Fantastic, I love this book. There’s even a chapter on ‘Cosmic Leaves’ (gardening with the moon) and ‘Recipes for all seasons’.
Square Foot Gardening
Author: Mel Bartholomew
Publisher: Rodale press
ISBN: 0878573410
/ American book with popular method of growing vegetables in small raised beds.
Nature’s Playground
Author: Danks & Schofield
Publisher: Francis Lincoln (2005)
ISBN: 10:0 7112 2491 9 / Inspiring look at discovering the outdoor environment with children.
The EdibleGarden
Author: Alys Fowler
Publisher: BBC Books (2010)
ISBN: 9781846079740 / Alys has a DIY recycled approach to gardening and likes to mix ornamentals and vegetables.
Resources: Equipment
/ Bottle top watering pack- 3 fine spray heads and 1 jet to fit onto plastic bottles. Great for fine watering of seedlings. Great re-use and recycle message. £2.49 per pack of 4!
Claritas
2 Earlswood St, Greenwich , London, SE10 9ES
Tel: 020 8858 2411
/ Hand-lenses - cheap but effective. Cheaper when bought in bulk.
‘Gowlands Newlight’
x10 magnification.
Grow veg – IT planning programme / Costs £15 a year to get this computer programme. Take a look and it might give you ideas.
Wiggly Wigglers
/ Great catalogue and family-run supplier of wormeries and nature gardening equipment.
Free seed catalogues:
Suttons Seeds -
Marshall’s -

Unwins seeds- / Good for choosing seeds and as a source of plant pictures.

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