October at the Gardening Club

Gardening Club's started back - yay! - with 15 new children and two old hands who are going to be my helpers (only they don't know that yet).

The first session was on Monday (which strictly speaking was September) and it went really well. Sometimes I try to work out why and this is what I came up with today - I was not tired (must remember to go to bed early on Sunday evenings), my head feels clearer with my youngest at playgroup two mornings a week (such luxury, time) and I just feel more confident.

So what's new this term? A flower bed Hubby very kindly dug for me. I had to get him to bring a very heavy bag of well rotted manure for me at the weekend so I thought while he was there....I was supervising (of course).

A new herb bed is also under way. More work needs to be done here but there's no rush. And we have a grow house (hooray!). This will make a huge difference.

I'm particularly pleased with this because I managed to find a replacement cover for less than a tenner to go over my old frame. What I would really like is a polytunnel like Dominic Murphy who manages to squeeze his club in when it's wet but we don't have the space or funds and they look quite ugly. As it stands during wet weather we can't do anything because the whole school is inside and there's no room for us. So pray for a dry autumn, winter and spring.

My plans for the coming weeks include planting daffodil bulbs (in the new flower bed) along with some bulbs I picked up for ten pence, sowing sweet pea seeds, starting off hyacinth bulbs, planting garlic and some overwintering shallots, clearing the runner bean bed, laying the manure and covering with newspaper and cardboard and, I think, sowing some green manure in the other bed. The third one will contain all our winter stuff.

And while that sounds a lot I know from experience that 15 children can whip through the planned activities rather quickly. Still, it is all looking good.

Why I Love My Blog #1

Not sure I'm allowed to say or admit that. I mean, it's a bit big headed isn't it?

But stop!

This isn't a Carrots and Kids Blow Your Own Trumpet Day. Good heavens, no.

One of the reasons I love my blog is because it's made me take photos, tons more photos than I ever would have done without it.

Pictures of flowers, weeds, birds, my allotment, my children, watering cans, packets of seeds. Obviously I would've taken photographs of my children but perhaps more posed, less of the ordinary mucking around at the allotment and back garden kind of stuff. The every day things that usually go unrecorded.

And my blog has enabled me, pushed me to do that. It's given room in a very crowded life for a love of photography. And for that I'm grateful. Thank you 'Carrots'.

School Club Harvest (or the Miraculous Never Watered But Still Grew Plants)

Usually when Monday approaches I start thinking about the school gardening club.

Actually, that's a bit of a lie. I used to start thinking about the club and what activities we would be doing on Tuesday. Towards the end of term however, my enthusiasm had started to wane and quite often I wouldn't think about this until Tuesday morning.

It's nothing personal. It seems a general malaise that is currently infecting my life. So last Tuesday I was rather relieved that it was the final one for a few weeks.

Weeding, watering and harvesting had been the main activities for the last two or three sessions, plus a visit from a photographer for the local paper was shoehorned into our busy schedule.

A lot of the produce has been slow to ripen so we've left in the runner beans, courgette and tomatoes with assurances from the members who live in the village that they will harvest them. I will probably pop in too but it does seem a bit cheeky for me to stagger away with armfuls of produce.

Plans for next term include sowing sweet pea seeds, bulbs and working on the herb patch in readiness for next spring. I've also got to look into grants and other funding because I'd like to buy a plastic growhouse (to put goodness knows where) and the bulbs.

The highlights? Definitely the children's enthusiasm and their possessiveness over the plot. It looks good and they should feel proud. The lowlights? Er....lack of working outside tap, the children's inability to remember to water the plants and a general lack of thanks (from adults and children).

For my part I'd mark my report card with a B minus. "Mrs B started the term well but ended a bit flat. She needs to maintain her energy and enthusiasm levels and to remember small but important tasks like entering the plot into gardening competitions, contacting nurseries for sponsorship and burning the photos onto a disc LIKE SHE PROMISED. All in all, could do better."

A Carrot Family Trip to the Plot

We have, somewhat surprisingly, managed to get up to the allotment. All seven of us. Doesn't often happen but it's nice when it does.

Thankfully we were the only ones up there save for a friend's husband who was morosely staring at their weeds. But I'm always amazed that it isn't full and bustling when we do visit at the weekends. Amazed and thankful this time as our youngest managed to forget the Golden Rule about others' plots (no damage done).

Don't worry, he's on our plot here

I wonder when others do go up there. Maybe they have a secret army of elves who come out of the woods at night and tend to their perfect plots. Or maybe they're retired and so visit during the day when generally I don't. Hmm. I know which theory I prefer.

Anyway, we managed to put in a couple of hours before everyone started to get a bit rebellious and moan about biting red ants, hunger pangs and baby brothers stealing the one strawberry they had been carefully nurturing.


We weeded, Hubby laid some old paving slabs that are my new paths (I've given up on everything else). Weeds will still be able to grow up the sides because they aren't a perfect fit having been salvaged from our back garden but they look nice. I think Hubby gets exasperated about this "looking nice" business but for me it's important.

Mud flower pot castles were made, on the newly laid paths

It also gave me a chance to outline my plans for the raspberry canes ("see like those over there") and to pick and eat a few of the fruit, sow some autumn carrots (which I didn't water) and plant an autumn gourd, oh and make a bit of an entrance to my plot (more of that later, I don't want to spoil you). A bit of work got done and nobody was too miserable or argumentative. Outright success in my book.

Raspberries were munched

It's All Change In the Carrots Garden

I'm really indecisive. The subject of how many times the kitchen and Aga have been moved gets brought up far too often if you ask me.

Unfortunately, I'm just the same with the outside. We are Not Happy with our garden. Basically, it's not big enough (and neither is the house) but it's all we're ever likely to have so we, I, need a way to come to terms with it and lurve it.

Gardening books, mags, programmes and shows have been scrutinised, nay obsessed over, in a bid to find Ideas. But some changes are happening and some have been thrust upon us. And all without a plan being agreed.

Take, for instance, the shed at the bottom of the garden. All forlorn, unloved and leaking it stood, forgotten. Until Hubby decided he needed it for His Stuff. So it's been spruced up, made water-tight (funny how that happens when he needs it) and moved.

Actually, I quite like its new home, near the house, at the top of the garden. I'm thinking a lick of paint, something lovely growing up the sides, room inside perhaps for a fork or two. He's thinking Hands Off!


The bottom of the garden, also neglected, is now crying out for attention. "Do something with me before the neighbours complain" it shouts at me every time I look out the window. Sometimes it cries "Look at all this wasted space. Space! Wasted! How could you, ye of such small home crammed with lots of kids!"

But for once I know what to do. The climbing frame is earmarked for where the chicken pen is, nicely hidden by the willow tree. Next to it will be the hammock strung between two more trees. And that space opposite, recently vacated by Small Shed will be home to my Potting Shed! Hurrah! I did voice concern that my shed was a little too close to the Children's Corner to be anything remotely retreat-like but Hubby, with his shed no where near the children, assured me it would be fine.

We, of course, have done nothing yet. There's the rubble waiting to be used as a base. And the overgrown jungle hill has been flattened and is waiting for....well, not sure really. What we really need is a remote control to freeze frame the children for, um, two months to give us a chance to catch up with everything. Either that or a nanny. Alas we have neither so this weekend we will be cracking on.

And the motivation? The chicken pen has now been vacated, thanks to Mr Fox, who rather ironically made good use of the space made by Hubby's shed removal to spy the chickens and make off with them. We've had hens for years and never had any trouble.


I shall miss the Bossy one, who kept laying in my herb bed. Really I feel quite sad about them both. And the partridge eggs Broody (who was always broody) was incubating. Still, I'm trying to look on the bright side, in an irritating Pollyanna-ish way, because I guess it means the garden plans might, finally, come to fruition. If I don't change my mind.

Babies and the Baby Belle

I love my aubergine plant, a Baby Belle. I've never grown one before but I love the purpleness, the pretty flower, how it will produce teeny tiny fruit that, no doubt, only I shall eat.

The other day I repotted it, with a little help. As soon as they heard the rustle of the compost bag, the smashing of broken pots, the little ones rushed over, eager to be involved. So how could I resist?


Some compost ended up on the patio, there was a fair bit of patting down so it needed fluffing up and the tub isn't as full as I'd like but they're happy so I'm happy and, I hope, the aubergine will be happy.


I loved all the comments on my last Aubergine Post so I'm going to look out some recipes to use up those gorgeous veggies that will be coming our way. I can't wait.

Thank You!

I wanted to post a heartfelt THANK YOU to Patientgardener for her suggestion on my last post of getting the school gardening club children to plant a nasturtium seed each which they can then take home at the end of term.

I have to say that is a much better idea than the one I came up with, which was to give them all a tomato plant. By the time it comes to giving them out, they'll be large, hopefully complete with toms, which will make them tricky to transport to school. Then of course there's the obvious one that I had not considered - the children would not have had a hand in their growing.

The results - eleven pots - can be seen above. I've brought them home to look after and water as, um, watering isn't the children's strong point. They're keen but tend to forget. So, just to give them a helping hand I'm babysitting.

My Little Green Fingered Gang

We were on holiday last week (could you tell?) and so consequently the school gardening club didn't run. I'm not so possessive that I would mind somone filling in, but there were no offers.

But - my! - what a difference two weeks make. It had been a fortnight since the last club and I hadn't bothered to check on the garden so it was a lovely surprise to see it on Tuesday.

The cabbages! The spinach! The runner beans! There was so much to look at and the children seemed excited to spot the green tomatoes and strawberries. Of course, there were downsides. It looked like someone had picked a courgette (the stalk had been cut and I'm sure two weeks ago there was a flower which by now must have matured to a veg) and the pumpkin has been totally eaten.

But apart from that everything looked lush and wonderful. I sighed a lot inwardly, thinking why couldn't my allotment be like that. After all, I spend more time on it.

Sometimes I struggle to think of things to do with them but to help me remember (and in case anyone is looking for inspiration) on this, Week Three of the second half of summer term, we: weeded planted the rocket they had grown from seed (I'm not sure this will grow as the seedlings were very small but I was desperate); carried on making the herb bed (there is a good team who seem to like doing this); planted some purple sprouting broccoli and refilled the pub slugs.

It doesn't seem like much but it filled the session. Trouble is, the school has got someone else to plant up troughs and baskets with the classes so I'm a bit limited about what we can do. I was rather hoping that would be in the scope of the gardening club so I'm hoping inspiration will strike in time for next week.

A Fairy In My Garden

This was undoubtedly the most beautiful sight in my garden today. I'm not really into flowers, but that will hopefully change, one thing at a time, so there are no blooms. But there was this. A fairy in my garden. I know she was a fairy because she told me so. Watering, of her own free will, a pot of salad. Ah, to be three-years-old.
Ahhhhhh, to being the mother of a three-year-old.

Gardening Woes

I'm feeling a bit despondent about the gardening club at the moment and I'm not sure why.

Well, undoubtedly one of the reasons why is thanks to whoever pulled up a lot of the plants during the recent half-term holidays.

One of the club members discovered the vandalism and replanted them but there were some casualties. I wondered why some lettuces were in the bean bed. It does make me feel a bit What's The Point? If the slugs don't get the plants, vandals will.

There's also no room for a greenhouse/growhouse type thing so makes growing by seed tricky, to say the least. No money for them either. I take plants from home, tomato plants today, and use at the school garden but I haven't the room to grow double of everything and I do so want to grow produce that we might sell to pay for Autumn bulbs, green manure and other stuff I just haven't thought of yet.

I'm also realising that I wouldn't make a very good teacher; the children seem to whip through the work and then want to leave early to go and play and I'm not entirely sure what to do about that. Nor about the requests of "what shall we do now" that are made at least every 30 seconds. I wonder if I should get them working in small groups with a leader?

The allotment's making me grumpy too. It's so scruffy, especially compared to Lovely Plot Lady's. And nothing's growing. Hubby thinks I should give it up and have beds at home but I Will Not Be Beaten. I hope.

Do Allotments and Little People Mix?

Or do allotments and babies go together like slugs and lettuce - naturally in theory but in practice a big NO!

One of the reasons I started this blog, among a myriad of very boring ones, was to show it was possible to keep your allotment while busily growing a family. It's something I feel quite passionate about.

I read with a twinge of sadness and a heap of understanding when Jane Perrone, the author of The Allotment Keeper's Handbook, recently wrote about her decision to give up her allotment.

Starting a family is undeniably life-changing but with a lowering of standards (or none at all in my case), a dash of selfishness and a bit of determination I really believe that allotment lovers can hold onto their plots.

This is the time when both could benefit hugely from having an allotment: cheap, organic veggies (good for breastfeeding mums, tired dads and weaning babes); somewhere safe and immersed in nature that's a change of scene from the back garden (change being as good as a rest); a sense of community (vital for mums who can feel isolated) and the chance of a bit of guilt-free peace (essential for sanity saving). Frankly, my allotment is the only space on this planet that I don't have to share and where I selfishly do what I want.

I know how hard it can be; our youngest used to cry when at the plot which I eventually neglected until allotment administrator grumpily threatened to give it to someone else. I shouldn't have let it get into such a state but it was the kick-start I needed. This year's different due partly to increased energy levels and playgroup looming on the horizon.

I found it harder to keep up with the allotment when pregnant. Rewind to a year ago and I'd do things differently - I'd cover half my plot with weed suppressing material or green manures and plant easy veg, brought from garden centres, in the rest. Onions, garlic, strawberries, runner beans, sunflowers, rhubarb and probably a space hogging courgette or two would the absolute most I would grow.

Once baby is here looking after a little one is, I think, easier, especially if you're breastfeeding. A bench, picnic rug, buggy or sling and the book Lia Leendertz's book The Half Hour Allotment are essential.

I know gardening is even easier at home; I'm growing veggies in pots and have lots of seedlings on the go for my containers and the allotment. Doing it this way means I get the best of both worlds - Dressing Gown Gardening and Pottering and Escapism Gardening.

But with the advent of huge waiting lists now at most sites, guilt is bound to set in when the weeds do. Should we be so hard on ourselves? It's not our fault councils are failing to provide enough allotments. And what if it is Mr Jones, on the normally productive end plot, who through no fault of his own is temporarily struggling to maintain his plot this season? Would we demand that he be turfed off or would we cut him some slack?

I know names can always be added to a waiting list a couple of years down the line but I think the satisfaction of Keeping On is immense and not to be underestimated. Just lower expectations and think of visiting the allotment as you would a trip to the park; little and often and heaps more interesting. The early years really do, sadly, go by in a blink. That's the one thing that sustained me during my dark allotment days - things could only get easier, time and energy would become more abundant.

I don't want to elbow the traditional, retired chaps off allotments but I'd love to see an army of mums or dads growing their own on sites, with a babe on a blanket legs wiggling, digging for a better, healthier life.

My Embryonic Gardeners

I'm holding onto my hat as I'm about to hit the Terrible Twos with my youngest. I'm already discovering that he certainly takes after his father and brother when it comes to matters of shopping.

But no matter. Now I have some, admittedly very small, borrowed wheels it means the younger two and I can go shopping! To garden centres! Yes, this is a measure of how desperate I am for the latest packet of seeds (carrot tape and rocket in this case) and sundries (eight foot canes) that I will suffer the inevitable ritualistic humiliation that is Shopping With A Toddler.

With a spring in my step I took them to my local garden centre where we, all right I, oohed and ahhed at the size of their courgettes and with admirable restraint came away with just an extra packet of seeds (chard) that hadn't been on my list.

While we stood happily amongst the veggies and herbs, the children touched the leaves and chatted to the backdrop of the chuckles of a passing elderly lady.

"Oh," she said, "look at those embryonic gardeners."

Which gave me warm and fuzzies and made up for the subsequent and inevitable tantrum over a tractor parked outside the garden centre.

I do hope they develop a love for plants and growing green things. I think I may have sown the seeds of love. As we left, and without any prompting whatsoever from me, honest, my three-year-old asked to "go to the 'lotment now."

So that is exactly what we did.

Slugs and Snails and Puppy Dogs' Tails

Traditionally slugs and snails and puppy dogs' tails are what little boys are made of. I've long thought that my girls have a good dose of these things too. There is none of that 'euww' factor when it comes to our slimy 'friends'.

Which, I have to say, is really handy when you're tidying up your long-neglected front garden and are hunting down the mollusc's who are intent on eating anything young and green (and that are not weeds, of course).

Wanting to find my curious and helpful three-year-old something to do, I equipped her with a bag and a hearty dose of slug confidence after an initial shaky start (Will they bite me? she asked twenty times).

She was soon joined by her eight-year-old sister and together they collected a large bag of the slimy thugs.

Things took a different turn by the time their nine-year-old sister got involved; snails soon had splodges of nail varnish on their back denoting name and ownership and six, or was it seven, were rescued from the Bag of Doom and rehoused in containers with holes in the top, decked out with twigs and all manner of tasty green things.



The snails are currently residing in the girls' bedroom and have frequent after-and-before school trips out to slime on young hands. Or the children will sit reading next to a big open box the snails have also commandeered and are carefully replaced if one tries to make a break for freedom.


I have to say this freaks me out slightly. We share this small space with a rabble of children, one dog, one cat, two hamsters and a guinea pig. Adding free-range snails to the list is just a step too far. So now I'm being petitioned to let them have an African land snail. I guess if you're into snails, which I'm obviously not, this must seem the ultimate in snail heaven. However, the jury's still out on that one!

My Gardening Club Guide (So Far)

It's Tuesday so that must mean I'm transporting half my garden and tools to a school not far from here for about 20 minutes gardening. Yep, it's Gardening Club day!

I do enjoy it hugely and start on Friday thinking about what we can do. I have quite a large group and they do seem to whiz through my planned activities at a rate of knots. So much so, in fact, that I'm praying our three beds will soon sprout a plethora of weeds just to keep them busy.

I must talk to them about taking it slllooooooowlyyyy and how there's plenty of time, no rush, just chill but it's possible that I'm so excited when I'm there that I whip them up a bit. Either that or they are just very, very good at gardening.

Every school, I reckon, should have a Gardening Club. And here, to facilitate that, I give you Things I Have Learnt So Far:

1. Be organised. Think of it as if you're hosting a birthday party (not helpful for the child-free, I know). Lots of planned activities and a few up your sleeve if they whiz through those.
2. Be in charge of the seeds: I had some children turn up the first day clutching various seeds, most of which I didn't want to use although some just disappeared. It'll be interesting to see what will grow. You also don't know how old they are and as you only have a short time you want to plant things that stand a good chance of growing.
3. Provide enough pencils for everyone and a trillion plant labels (I learnt this the hard way).
4. Make a chart on the computer and print it out for one child to fill out each week to keep as a record of what you did when. I also take my camera along; hopefully it'll be a nice record of our progress.
5. Set up a watering rota, to be done at last break when it's cooler. Mine seem to forget (sigh) so I'm going to give them a piece of paper with their day written on. I'm not overly optimistic this will work.
6. Think about when you want to hold your club: during lunch times is handy as there are staff everywhere for unruly/poorly children but time is limited. However, see number one. This may be a Good Thing. After school is good as you have a captive audience (they can't wander off to play footie with their friends or feign tummy aches) but may be too long, see number one.
7. Sow plenty of radishes, sunflowers and lettuces. The sunflowers will add an "ahhh" or "wow" factor to your garden and the radishes and the salad will ensure everybody will go home with something they have grown.

While writing this I've been mulling over my aims for our gardening club. So what do I want for it? I'd like all the members to find a love and a green finger or two for gardening (this is unrealistic I know, there are bound to be one or two or more who find it dreary and dull). And I'd like them all to go home in July clutching a lettuce or carrot they have grown themselves. But mostly I just want them to think gardening's cool.

The Plants Have Arrived! Eeek!

It was like Christmas, seven months early, at our house today when the plants from these guys for the school gardening club arrived.

A friend staggered up the garden path with a large box which one of my daughters, a club member, helped me to unpack. We waded through layers of straw until we hit gold. It was a bit like a farmyard version of lucky dip, straw everywhere plus plants.


Thanks to their early arrival, I am now nervously looking after a load of small green visitors which will hopefully grow into cabbages, cauliflowers, beetroot, spinach, a whole host of different lettuces, tomatoes, strawberries, runner and barlotti beans and courgettes.

They're a bit droopy after their long journey from Cornwall so I've placed them in pots, watered them and given lodging in my growhouse to the most precious ones.


While this has been rather exciting it has also added to my List of Gardening Club Worries, which is growing ever longer by the day. Currently nestling in my Top Ten are:

• The plants will all be eaten by slugs and I will have cost the school £49.
• Or they will all die before we get to plant them on Tuesday and I will have cost the school £49.
  
• The children will take approximately 30 seconds to plant them and I have no idea what we will do with the other 37 minutes.
• It will be rather chaotic like last time.
• I will forget my watering cans again.
• We really should have built three beds and not two because I have 15 children and five to a bed would work out better. Doh!
• I will, once again, give the impression to the staff of being not very good or, worse, Not Up To It.
• I will not enjoy it.
• Once the plants are in I'm not sure, apart from watering, what we shall do next exactly. I have some vague ideas but....
• We will have too many plants for the beds or, conversely, not enough.

There is also matter of the offer of help from someone, which on the face of it is a Good Thing. Except while I've been transplanted into alien soil, so far out of my comfort zone, I would just like to do it by myself until I get established. I've no idea if this offer has been accepted by the headteacher and I feel a big sigh escaping. Things are never simple.


First though I have to come up with some inexpensive slug and snail deterrents. The budget is nought pounds. Oh, I do like a challenge. Obviously.

Beans, Birthdays and Beginnings

Ohmygod. I have such a headache. Bang. Bang. Bang. On and on it goes and nothing but nothing will shift it. Except perhaps the restorative powers of plants. No, not the digging, doing kind of plant power but the swinging on a hammock surrounded by greenery type.

In this fragile state, feeling overwhelmed and under-resourced I headed off to my daughters' school to begin our first ever gardening club. How the school has gone this many years without one I don't know, or rather now I do.

It's not that the children were naughty or not interested. Far from it. They were very keen, many of them arriving clutching their seeds. It was all me. I honestly don't know how teachers do it and they have far more than the 15 children I had. Whooosh - that's the wind leaving my sails and that banging? My head. Still.

We planted seeds in pots. Sunflowers, my how they love their sunflowers. Courgettes, pumpkins, lettuce, radishes and something called love-in-a-mist which should have gone straight into the ground but today we were planting in pots and one little person was Very Keen on planting this. I wanted to plant purple French beans but no-one else did. We made loo roll pots and used some plastic pots donated by a couple of kind parents.

What I need to do is let them have some freedom to plant what they want but in the confines of what will work and where. At the moment it's a bit of a free-for-all.

If I had just the club to contend with today it wouldn't be so bad. But like everything I do, nothing goes smoothly and most ideas are great, at the time. Today I had to factor in not having a car, making a birthday cake that kept going wrong, not being able to fit car seats into my father's car, trying to tidy the house and organising emergency lifts. *sigh*. All before five little girls come for a birthday tea. Tomorrow it's a High School Musical concert. I hope my head is better.

Still I was slightly heartened when I checked my growhouse just now and saw the Morning Glory I planted last week.They weren't just sleepily poking their heads through the compost, but were bright and perky and fairly rampant. Maybe that's because they're climbers, eager to get on. I wonder if different plants do have certain personalities? Or is my stressful day making me feel slightly loopy?

Grow Baby, Grow

I think the Gardening Magic is starting to rub off on my three-year-old. Maybe it's because I've started her young.

"I want to," she imperiously told me this afternoon, "plant some carrots."

So that is what we did. I was at my 'potting table' sowing another plot of coriander and a tray of petunia, marvelling at how absolutely minuscule the flower seeds were and crossing my fingers that they would germinate although I was planting them late according to the packet.

We filled a pot I found under the table and laid rows of carrot seed tapes. These are supposed to be child friendly and they were obviously easier for little hands to sow than tiny seeds. I'm going to use them at my school gardening club's inaugural meeting next Tuesday (eek! I'll put that out of my mind. For now).

I have high hopes for them. I haven't thought so far as what I shall do if they don't germinate. And in our garden that's a distinct possibility. There should be a warning on the packet that reads: "Do not let nearly two-year-olds near the seeds when finished especially when they're all mixed in with compost because they will crumple up like used tissue and will be hard to get flat again."

My little gardener also helped me to sow a pot of carrots using seeds. I tried to get her to sprinkle but most ended in clumps so when she lost interest I sort of realigned them. I'm not sure if it'll make any difference but it does make the experiment - seed tape v seeds - that fairer. I shall be watching their progress closely.

School Gardening Club? Anyone?

"Mary Mary quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?"

I'm not entirely sure how these things happen, but I am now the proud Person In Charge of a soon-to-be school gardening club.

To say I am panicking is probably putting it mildly. So what am I scared of? Er....let's see. That none of the children will be interested or will be at first but will then become really bored and it'll be just me and two of my daughters and well, we can do all that up at the allotment any old time can't we? And that nothing will grow. Ever. I mean, I'm not exactly well known for my green fingers.

I'm also worried that we've left it slightly too late. I think, rashly it now seems, I suggested this more than a month ago (we were asked for our suggestions/opinions and I suffer from Big Mouthitis) and the Headteacher has just got back to me about it. I don't think she's a gardener somehow.

But I've picked my, cough sorry, our patch. I've volunteered Hubby to make the raised beds, with what I'm not entirely sure. I am a bit worried about the very large tree next to the patch but the head assures me it gets sun and there are lots of greenery around so it can't be too bad, I hope.

However, because it is getting a bit late in the day (did I mention I was panicking?) I've suggested we buy some plants from here which will hopefully give us something to show for our work.

If anyone has any hints, tips or tricks about setting up or running a school gardening club I'd be really, really grateful (me? Panicking?) I've just spent hours surfing the web and have come up with a few ideas and have realised I missed Gardeners' World. Goodness, I must be keen!

At Last.....

Yesterday I finally felt that spring was here. Lately it's been a bit tricky remembering which season we're in, what with the snow, rain, cold, rain, hailstones and rain. But yesterday, ah - warmth and sunshine. I sat in my garden, typing this, surrounded by the sounds of chatty birds, lawnmowers and the odd drone of a bumblebee. I watched (I can touch type) a butterfly sunning itself on our slide and next door's frothy blossom gently doing a little dance in the breeze. Bliss.

So what's a girl to do with time, and a toddler, on her hands? No, no prizes for guessing. I remembered to take everything I needed, which in itself is a minor miracle, and packed a bribe (or as I described it, a picnic) for the little one and we headed to our patch.


I can't say I wasn't feeling a little concerned that it would be one Stress Fess from Hell as I haven't been up to the allotment with anyone under the age of three on my own for a looooong time.

But I needn't have worried. The toddler was absolutely fine, actually better than fine. He stuck next to me, didn't take the opportunity to wander when I wasn't looking, kept off others' plots and dug away on various bits of earth.



I'll just gloss over the time he walked over my newly emerging carrots and just-planted peas. Or how he plonked himself down in the patch that I'd just dug over for my broad beans. Nope, he was a star.

We stayed for nearly two hours and I managed to sow three more rows of carrots. I had meant to do it last time but didn't. Tiny little shoots are now poking their head out of the soft bed of compost I made for the first lot I sowed, so I felt encouraged to sow some more.

My carrots are never prolific growers so last year I decided to sow them in rows filled with compost and then covered them with it before giving them a water. But still, not much grew. I think it got warmer and the wet compost baked a nice, hard crust so this year I did the same without the watering.

Today I ran out of compost so I sowed one row directly into the soil. I'm sure it won't be successful but it'll be interesting to find out if my cossetting way does make a difference. I also managed to sow a double row of sugar snap and another of broad beans. I'm not holding out much hope for these - I'm sure a mouse is sharing our plot.

There is still much to do, but I'm feeling happier and ever so slightly green-fingered, if only a delicate shade of a hint-of-apple. Then again, it could, of course, just be because sun was at last shining!

Children and Their Plots

From what I can tell, most children seem to take to their parents' hobbies and enthusiasms like ducks to water. What happens when they hit adolesence, I'm not sure but will find out before long. It'll probably involve a lot of grunting and refusal to go anywhere near the allotment.

I've found that our children are enthusiastic gardeners. Of course, a few things have helped and because they seem so obvious I feel a bit silly stating them out loud. As feeling silly is a regular occurance, I'll plough on.

• Space of their own: When I very kindly donated one whole bed (oh, the generosity) to be divided between our then three children, I did wince a bit. A whole bed! But it has been worth every second of weeding for them that I've had to do. Some of their areas are better than others, but each is proud and not a little possessive of their own tiny space (you should see the fight for the fattest worms...).

• Lower your expectations: The only requirement I've had for the children is that they shouldn't whinge to go home ten minutes after arriving. If they don't fancy doing any "work" on their patch - fine. Earwig hospitals, creating a digging hole and playing in the nearby woods have all taken precedence many times. One of the points of a family allotment, for me, is that they're not sat in front of a screen.

• Tools: Having child-sized tools makes all the difference. Having one each helps enormously (although they still like using mine). Gardening gloves are handy too, especially if you have biting red ants like we have been blessed with.

• Food and being prepared: It helps, I find, if you let them stuff their pockets with sweets/chocolate before you set off. Not particularly healthy I know, but offset by all that fresh air perhaps. Also helps to avoid any "I'm hungry, can we go now?" whingeing. Hot chocolate on chilly days and bottled water on hot ones is essential as is coats/welly boots/sunhats/suncream.

• Little ones: Our two toddlers love the allotment. One is happy to water using a child-sized can while the other loves pushing his plastic lorry through the mud. Both were bought especially with the allotment in mind and live in our shared shed on site.

• A couple of rules: It helps, I think, not to be too precious but there are a couple of Important Rules that must be obeyed. No walking on others' plots and no running on ours. The carpeted paths aren't terribly well laid and sticks are pointy. Nuff said.

• Put your hands in your pocket: We have found that it's helped to spend a bit of cash to encourage the enjoyment. They fancy that pineapple mint plant for their patch that they've spied on a garden centre trip? Fine. They need that strip of broccoli plants? Wonderful. Car boot sales and plant stalls at fetes are good places to pick up cheap plants for them and you.

• Child-friendly plants: I can't see my children ever eating radishes, even if they have grown them themselves but plants they do find interesting are sunflowers, herbs (for the scent) and strawberries. They generally like growing anything, as long as it's not weeds, knowing that us adults will enjoy their produce even if they won't. One of them will now eat a bit of salad so we've planted lettuce seeds in the shape of her initial.

Gardening with children is not hard, just different. As I never had a plot pre-children it's not something I miss. Of course, I can appreciate how much easier it is but I'm sure I'll miss their company terribly once me and our plot have been abandoned for the opposite sex and sleeping in til noon. Until that day I'll enjoy every second gardening with them.