Saturday, May 17, 2008
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TRAINING THE YOUNG SHOOTS

By Richard Wright - Friday, May 9, 2008
TRAINING THE YOUNG SHOOTS
Malcolm Reed, right, showing some of the pupils artichokes on the allotments. Picture by PETER BOAM.
GARDENING
ACROSS the Island, schoolchildren are learning about gardening like never before.
An ever-increasing number of schools are taking on the task of telling kids about food miles and, best of all, helping them grow good, wholesome produce.
It links the planting and cultivation of a vegetable to the enjoyment of harvesting, cooking and eating it. And it underlines how much nicer, better and more efficient the whole process is.
Basic circle of life stuff that and a job that never used to be done by the schools or by the likes of Jamie Oliver.
I was born in 1954 to parents who were children before the war and young adults during it.
They, in turn, had grown up in households that depended for their health on being able to grow their own food. Grandad didn’t have the wealth to do other than pull signals on the railway during the day and garden in the evening.
Therefore, I’m probably among the last generation who learned practical gardening skills, not from school — there was no school garden — but from my dad.
And that was in the environment of a semi, which, despite the fact it had only a small garden, was mostly turned over to vegetables and had chickens too.
It was not in the country either. It was in Swanmore. Try it today and see what sort of community commotion a crowing cock will cause.
Nettlestone Community Primary School is one of those schools helping to turn the clock back.
Headteacher Caroline deBelder and teacher Christina Howard went to a Growing Skills event in Birmingham and learned all about them, came back and were fired with enthusiasm to breathe life into the school veg patch.
Carrots, spinach, tomatoes and peas are among the veg the kids will grow which the school cooks will, later in the year, knock up into a meal, combining the home-grown with local produce.
If the kids can resist eating the peas raw, that is.
Year 2 kids crocodiled their way down the road to Sandlands allotments and saw one of my neighbours, Malcolm Reed, who would have kindled their enthusiasm and given them a good few tips too.
They had a little allotment tour to see what can be done and how people do it and would have seen my pair of allotments too.
They are productive but untidy and had I been there I would, of course, have told them of the vital importance of clean edges, regular weeding and planning ahead, adhering to my very favourite adage as a parento-crite. One that’s always recited in jest:
“Do as I say, not as I do.”

RUNNERS ON THEIR MARKS
I AM loath to disagree with gardening writers, particularly those who have clearly been at the hobby for more than a good few decades.
Brian Kidd writes for a paper not a million miles away that used to employ me and was asked about when to plant out runner beans.
His reply was an interesting one. I Kidd you not.
“In Fareham, you should be able to plant the beans out after May 21; if you live in Portsmouth, you could plant them out after May 16.
“The second sowing is made on the last day of June. This is a good idea because the ones sown earlier will have stopped being tender in October.”
Prescriptive advice this and, of course, we all know gardening is a lot more flexible than that.
The Nettlestone kids will have noticed at Sandlands runner beans that have scampered a couple of feet, or more than half a metre in their language, up their sticks already, with the aid of just a few bits of plastic to stop wind buffet.
Gardeners feel when the time is right.
They plant seeds after a good soak of rain, because a hose can never do the job as well and they know if there is going to be a nip of frost and either hold back or take precautions.
I’ve just planted my faithful runners in the greenhouse and a fortnight hence — but purely coincidentally with Mr Kidd’s date — about May 16 they should be ready to plant out.

READY, STEADY, SQUASH
CHILL nights have meant it’s been a tad early to put out pumpkins and squashes but now’s a good time to start them off in a pot in the conservatory, greenhouse, or on a windowsill. In a couple of weeks they’ll be ready to go out. A richly manured bed is best.