by Mrs Wilson

The children have been very busy over the last few weeks planning and preparing everything we need to get ready to start planting in our nursery garden.

We made a floor map to add our ideas about what we needed to do and what we would like to grow.

One of the ideas from the floor map was to plant pumpkin seeds so we could grow our own for Halloween.  We learned that pumpkin seeds are planted on their sides and when they are growing they will need lots of water.

We have been developing our fine and gross motor skills as we used trowels to dig out weeds and turn over the soil in our raised beds so the soil is prepared for planting. Some of the children remembered that last year some of our plants were eaten by slugs, so we decided to go on a slug hunt in the garden so we could remove them.

Using soapy water and sponges we washed out old plant pots so they are ready for planting our new seeds.

Potatoes are always a favourite to grow with the children at our family centre.  We used our observation skills and magnifying glasses to learn about chitting seed potatoes to allow the eyes to grow before we can plant them.

To decide what we are going to plant we used buttons to choose our three favourite fruits or vegetables to grow in the garden.

We made a graph using unifix cubes to help interpret the results of our fruit and vegetable survey.

The children are now looking forward to planting in the garden.   This will help to develop their knowledge and understanding about how the different plants grow and how to look after them, as well as the opportunity to taste a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables when they are ready to harvest.

Further information about growing fruits, vegetables and flowers and gardening with children can be found on the following websites:

https://www.rhs.org.uk/education-learning/gardening-children-schools/family-activities/grow-it

https://www.gardenersworld.com/plants/tips-for-gardening-with-children/