Starting A School's Organic Vegetable Garden - Help Needed!!

[Lesley Jay]

I have just received an email from a teacher who is starting an organic vegetable garden with her students. They have a few plants and a rough patch of ground.

Can we give advice on the best way to prepare the vegetable patch and get this project off the ground please?

[malcolmx]

where abouts is the school and what type of soil do they have

[Lesley Jay]

Malcolm I believe the school is in Westcliff On Sea, Essex. I have sent the teacher an email asking about what type of soil they have.

[Lesley Jay]

The teacher thinks there is a fair amount of clay in the soil.

[DunDiggin]

If they're on clay then I suggest they go for raised beds, but they'll need to dig the soil through before they construct the beds. Join their local freecycle and keep an eye out for useful items like timber, top soil, greenhouses, plant pots. Also locate a local allotment community and possibly NSALG (National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners), all of which may be able to offer help and/or resources.

[richardwil]

I have to agree that they should go for raised beds. If these are split into mini plots children can have their own part of each raised bed. That is unless there are a lot of children invloved.

Shallow rooted crops should not need the soil digging as long as the beds are 6 inches deep. Good for things like salad crops but deep rooted crops will need the soil breaking up underneath the beds.

Suggest she reads the forum as she will get lots of help here.

Cheers

[jamesmiddz]

Very good point made buy DunDiggin. I am a member of freecycle and I have got plenty of excellent materials for my allotment from them...all free!

If you find that your soil is so clay heavy and you have little success with growing things in it, I'd recommend (in the short term at least) to start building up the top layer of earth with manure or compost and forget about the soil beneath. This works well with most none-root vegetables.

You could try to contact your local council and ask them if they will deliver a few tonnes of green waste. It's usually free and most councils in the UK and more than happy to do good with it.

[malcolmx]

have you received any more info from the teacher ?

we could help with saved seed or plot schematics ?

i am not a fan of council manures can be full of tannin toxins and disease have others found this

[glallotments]

I know that this was posted a long time ago but for future interest. I have set up a website to support schools who are starting a vegetable garden here

Home

It also has links to a list of other 'useful websites'

[PottyPot]

Great way to make raised beds is old clay roofing tiles, you can do the corners of the beds with the curved ridge tiles. They look splendid when done and have a lovely old Victorian charm to them. Just look for people having a new roof and grab the tiles before they smash them into the skip. Use heavy gauge wire to wire the tiles together through their nail holes to make a deeper bed. You'll soon find the soil holds everything in place when done