I'm no expert but I am nosy and sometimes lack inspiration. This might help others who are the same or who are wondering what to do sometimes with their school gardeners. If not, I know it will help me and my appalling memory. Note: sometimes it'll rain so just switch around the activities that can be done inside.
Autumn Term
Week One: We usually start back a couple of weeks after term has started. Jobs to do: clear any beds of plants that are no longer producing. Weed. Tidy around edges of plot. Add manure to beds but not the one earmarked for carrots. Plant daffodil bulbs. Collect any seeds from sweet peas using paper bags. Appeal for loo roll inners, clean jars, egg boxes, newspapers and old flower pots in the school newsletter.
Week Two: Take in magazines, old comics and gardening catalogues. Make sure you have enough pots or jars. Get the children to decorate their pots/jars, remembering to add a layer of glue over the top to protect the images. Get each child to plant a hyacinth bulb that they can take home at the end of term. Store somewhere cold and dark.
Week Three: Plant onion and garlic sets. Sow lettuce (and use a cloche when it gets cooler). Plant some winter bedding in the flower bed to add some interest when it's miserable (pansies and violas). If you have time get the children to plant up some narcissus bulbs that can be given out at the end of term as thank-yous to parents/teachers who've been helpful and supportive.
Week Four: Sow broad beans in one of the prepared beds. Sow sweet peas in the loo roll inners (remembering to water them every so often) and put in the grow house.
Week Five: Think about building a bug hotel. Show the children pictures of some and work out your design. This might mean taking along a hammer and nails and displaying your really rubbish diy skills or it could mean, if you're organised, getting someone to make a frame for you. Think carefully about where to place it. Or perhaps make lots of smaller ones that would be easy to dot around the garden. Make the hotel(s) and photograph copiously.
