Describe your Edible Playground?
The preschool is 10 miles from Aberdeen and near a river. We got rid of shrubs in one part of the playground and set up some raised beds where it is sheltered and cosy. It needs to be, as the good weather is very on and off! We have six raised beds in total - two of them were part of the starter kit which we won.
 
How do your organise your gardening activities?
The preschool can take 55 children at any one time – 30 of them are under three. We leave a lot of time for the children to decide what they want to do and they want to be outdoors for much of the day. When there is something which needs doing in the vegetable garden, we work with a group of four and keep swapping round so everyone gets a turn.

Is gardening a popular activity?
The children absolutely love it; they would be gardening every minute of the day if they could. They consider it even better than dressing up or music and dance.

Who looks after the Edible Playground in the holidays?
We are a year-round play group so this isn’t an issue.

What have been your best growing successes?
The potatoes – there’s no stopping them and digging up last year’s potatoes was almost as exciting for the staff as it was for the children. And of course the strawberries have been great!

However, we must be the only school which can’t grow radishes. And last year’s peas were hopeless too.
 
What pests are particularly bothersome?
We tried to grow kohlrabi, thanks to the caterpillars the leaves were just like lace. The children picked off about 50 of them, passed, played and had races with them.
 
Do you attract wildlife into your Edible Playground?
We get wonderful worms which the children are fascinated by! We are just up the hill from a river and there are many trees close by and perhaps because of this we get gigantic spiders – though I don’t know if they are helping to deal with any of the pests. We have also seen hedgehogs and frogs in the school grounds.
 
What do children enjoy most about their Edible Playground?
They love seeing seeds, knowing they are going to grow in to plants, so are really fascinated by sowing them in modules. When we thinned the beetroot seedlings recently, we squished them onto some paper so the children could see the red juice, we did the same with spinach, and they thought that was fun.
They are also happy just to take a spade and just dig away in an empty bed.
 
How do you fund your Edible Playground?
We are going to sell produce to parents and staff.
 
Do you have any help from outside the school with the Edible Playground?
Not at present.

How do you use the produce from the garden?
We have fantastic kitchen staff who are great at getting the kids to eat vegetables. They are most likely to eat them, if they are chopped really small. The kids love ‘Popeye pasta’ which is macaroni with shredded spinach in the sauce. 
The children prepared broad beans themselves and ate them at snack time. We also ate lots of potato wedges with dips. When the children made some of these, they were very garlicy indeed!

Do you have any tips you'd like to pass on to other schools?
We put rabbit droppings into our compost!