Describe your Edible Playground
We are a small school in a residential part of Chiswick, west London. The school is in an old house and the growing area is at the back of the house. We started growing this year thanks to the Dorset Cereals Edible Playground and along with the two raised beds we won; we have lots of tubs and other containers.

How do you organise growing?
At present the 18 children in Year 4 are spending most of their time in the vegetable garden. They do the work with their teacher and a couple of parents during two break times each week. Also, we changed the biology topics around so Year 4 were studying growing during the summer term, so they could also spend some lesson time in the garden.
We made the pea harvest a maths activity – the children podded, counted them and did division with them and then ate them of course!
 
Who looks after the Edible Playground in the holidays?
This is something we are working on. Our plants suffered during the dry holidays earlier in the year. As we are in the heart of the community, over the summer we plan either to set up a rota system or as we have a very enterprising caretaker, we may be able to set up a leaky hose type of affair.
 
What have been your best growing successes?
The potatoes were fantastic. Every child in the school sampled one. The strawberries were great too, but I don’t think many of them stayed on the plants long enough to fully ripen.
 
What pests are particularly bothersome?
We have squirrels. They started eating our peas until we netted the plants. We also have urban foxes which are attracted to the compost bins and make a mess in the playground.
 
Do you attract wildlife into your Edible Playground?
We have noticed lots of butterflies, ladybirds and other bugs. The younger children love these; they’ve been looking at them under magnifying glasses.
 
What do children enjoy most about their Edible Playground?
Many of the children really didn’t have any idea about how food is grown. Being involved with growing really has inspired a sense of awe and wonder in them, which is really thrilling for the adults to see.

Some quotes….

“I enjoyed planting the different types of vegetables and then eating them at lunch. Most of all, I liked watering the plants and seeing how they grow.” (Dorka Dani)

“I liked harvesting the potatoes. It was really fun because you didn’t know when you were going to find the next potato.” (Lauren Griffith)

“I enjoyed picking the beetroot, the spring onions and the carrots. I liked gardening because we learned about growing plants.” (Daisy Murgatroyd)

“It was fun to plant the potatoes and to watch them grow, especially the competition potatoes.” (Sabrina Anwer)

“I enjoyed pulling up the potatoes and seeing how big they were. I also liked weighing them.” (Liv Ranson)

“I liked planting and picking the potatoes. I also enjoyed growing and cutting the lettuce. It was lovely to eat the potatoes in a potato salad and the lettuce for lunch. I liked growing all the plants and flowers.” (Madeleine Evans)

“I enjoyed planting the potatoes and the strawberries. I also liked planting the flowers and they have made our garden look very pretty.” (Ruby Dalby)
 
How do you fund your Edible Playground?
The school funds it. Though we did have a little stall selling plants we had grown at our summer fair.
 
Do you have any help from outside the school with the Edible Playground?
Two parents come in to help with gardening activities.

How do you use the produce from the garden?
We have a really good cook, who creates healthy school meals. She has been able to incorporate whatever has been harvested from the garden into the lunches and the children are really delighted to be eating food they have grown.
 
Do have any tips you'd like to pass on to other schools?
The theme for the summer fair was ‘growing’. Every stall had this as their focus and the children created artwork relating to it. The choir sang ‘In an English Country Garden’.

The younger children find it a bit frustrating planting seeds, not really knowing what they are growing and then waiting for what seems like ages for anything to happen. So this year we have taken lots of pictures of the plants at all the different stages of growth, so we can show next year’s little ones what to expect and when and what the end product will be.