Small watering cans: these are easier for the children to manage. It would be nice to have galvanised cans as opposed to plastic —I’m thinking about looks not carbon footprint — but plastic ones are more practical because they are lighter to carry and cheaper to replace when they inevitably go missing. On the side of each can you should write the following request in indelible ink and the largest letters you can squeeze on to the can without the message becoming illegible: Please Return to the Gardening Club. This could be followed by an optional warning containing threats that are likely to deter the cans being borrowed at all, but that could bring you into conflict with the school authorities.

Why, you ask, did I not lock the watering cans away if I feel that strongly about it? This would merely prove self-defeating, because any children you had assigned to a watering rota would not be able to get at the cans and your plants would suffer.

Ideally, each watering can should come with a rose attached to it by a sturdy chain, though I have yet to come across anybody who sells such a combination. If you are similarly unlucky in your search for one, make sure you have a private supply of roses that you bring with you each week, replacing ones that go missing as necessary. A fine rose is best for watering young plants (think of a flour sieve as opposed to a colander). They can get clogged up with dirt from time to time, but in my experience they are the best way to ensure baby plants have a drink as opposed to a life-threatening dousing.

Hand forks and hand trowels: be wary of tools that come in sweetshop colours to make them more attractive to children. Some of these are as much use as a credit card on a desert island. It is important that all tools are good quality — even young children can break poor quality tools in unyielding earth.
The sign of a strong trowel is one with a concave blade and a curved handle.

Garden fork: (see spade, above)

Rakes of some sort: A general-purpose rake will suffice, though it is really worth giving a safety lesson when this tool comes out. We have had our Tom and Jerry moments at school, where a rake with the tines facing upwards has been trodden on and the handle has shot up and bashed a child. A springbok rake is good for raking up grass and leaves, but not much use on bare earth.

Hoe: An essential weeding tool for an adult, though should be supervised if
being used by a child. A Dutch hoe, which you use with a gentle push and pull
motion to uproot annual weeds and break up the ground, is as good as any.

Secateurs: One quality pair, always carried by you and never let out of your sight. Price is always a good indication of what you’re getting.

Kneeling mats: ‘Over accessorising’ I used to think, until our gardening club was given some. This was an epiphany — they do so much to keep children’s clothes clean, as well as making weeding more comfortable for your knees.
They are cheap and widely available — buy some with bright patterns or flowers printed on to them rather than the typical dour utilitarian green.

Children-sized gloves: There will always be common weeds that sting, prick and spike you, but less obvious are the plants that can cause irritation to the skin. A pair of gloves might also encourage a squeamish child to overcome, say, their fear of worms (not a useful phobia to have in a gardening club).
Either encourage the children to bring their own gloves, or buy a variety of sizes but in exactly the same design. Otherwise you risk the sort of problem you get in a cafe with different-coloured drinking straws: a choice will only cause arguments.

A notebook: to compare what you did year after year. This will help you to hone your technique with certain plants, and learn from your mistakes.

A wheelbarrow or gardener’s bag: for gathering weeds.
Saves you clearing up.

You might also throw in a riddle for sieving soil (I always brought my own to school) and a soil thermometer that might be the key to an interesting project or two.

And, at the risk of stating the obvious, a new gardening club will have to have a good supply of the following: garden canes (more than you think you will need and in varying sizes: those 8ft ones in the garden centre are worth it if you’re going to grow beans); gardening twine; large plastic pots (10cm and 20cm) for potting on, and seed trays and modules for getting your plants going.
Modules are the trays that are divided up like egg cartons into individual parts.
The idea is that each module, or cell, has its own plant in it and the benefits are reduced competition from other seedlings, and less chance of trauma for the plant when it is transplanted. This is because the module can be moved in its entirety, with the roots encased in their own private bit of compost.

Edible Playgrounds is an initiative that has been created by
Screen Bites www.screen-bites.co.uk and is now supported
by Dorset Cereals www.dorsetcereals.co.uk