The Gardening Club from Allenbourn Middle School recently spent a glorious afternoon at Kingston Lacy kitchen garden, learning about seeds and compost.
The trip was linked to the national ‘Grow and Sell’ initiative launched last spring by Waitrose.
The idea is to encourage children to learn more about where food comes from and about its seasonality, and ultimately to grow produce to sell outside their local Waitrose store.
Allenbourn is one of several local schools to take part, and during the afternoon the twenty members of the club, plus four staff, had the chance to explore the kitchen gardens, meeting pigs, ducks, geese and chickens.
They then looked at different kinds of seeds, tasted marigold petals, made seeds packets and newspaper seed trays, which were planted up and taken back to school.
Jo Edmond, a former teacher and now National Trust fundraiser and events co-ordinator, led the workshop. “This is the best bit of Kingston Lacy,” she says, “animals, vegetables and tractors!”
