Brady Primary School visit Rainham Allotments.

On Tuesday 29 of March members of the Rainham allotments had the great pleasure of hosting 29 year 5 students from Brady Primary School as part of their ” sow, grow and farm” project.The children were excited, enthusiastic, energetic and each of them came armed with some questions they had obviously spent a lot of time researching.

They asked expert gardener Jackie McArdle questions such as what is the ph of the soil?What vegetable takes the longest to grow?What problems do you encounter?What is the soil made up of? What are the benefits of growing your own?What does it cost? Is it cost effective?

Jackie told the Havering Daily: “Wow these children really kept me on my toes I had to call in the help of our resident experts Elaine and Bob at one stage! They met and quizzed our beekeeper, talked to some plot holders at work, saw our plant hospital run by an 80 year old retired nurse Margaret and learnt how plants take in co2 and turn it in to oxygen and how we breath in oxygen and breath out co2 proving talking to plants really does work.

“They saw decomposing manure and the difference in it as you dig down and the heat it emits. They picked dried runner bean pods and found inside bean seeds ready to plant which they all took home. They were shown a no dig plot and how and why this is better for the environment, learnt how worms do the work for you and how, and why for the benefit of the planet we need to stop using fertilisers, bug and weed killers.

“Of course they couldn’t leave without any produce and they all picked or were given, a brussel sprout, some purple sprouting broccoli and some cauliflower. They were also all given a pot of flowering bulbs to take home to their mums as a thank you for coming present.

“Brady School have joined us at a very exciting time as not only will they be found a small school plot, but we have just recently secured almost 8k in funding for our school groups and projects and they join our 3 resident groups Routes 4 Life, Playways and Fairytales in hopefully learning how to be future gardeners and reap the benefits of fresh air, exercise and organically grown fruit and vegetables.”

Year Five teacher Mr Jamie Stephens told the Havering Daily:

“We visited to consolidate our learning for our topic ‘Sow, grow and farm’. Children were keen to learn about seasonality, different soil types, the time required to be successful at managing an allotment and what fresh produce can be grown in Britain.”

We done to Jackie McArdle who is an amazing community champion in Rainham, members of the Rainham allotments and staff and children at Brady Primary school for embarking in a great community project. Great work!