Gardening Resources
Free gardening resources for schools:
The Big Sunflower Project
https://thebigsunflowerproject.wordpress.com
The Big Sunflower Project helps raise awareness of the rare neuromuscular condtions known as centronuclear and myotubular myopathy. The project is now in its eighth year. You can find information on how to take part and receive free sunflower seeds, as well as information about growing your own sunflowers, on their website.
The Great Plant Hunt
www.greatplanthunt.org
The Great Plant Hunt develops children's understanding of the natural world and is an ideal free resource to help you teach the primary science curriculum. All teaching materials and resources are available to download - so you can make your own Treasure Chest of resources to run The Great Plant Hunt completely free.
Grow your own Potatoes
www.growyourownpotatoes.org.uk
'Grow your own Potatoes' is a project that teaches primary school children about potatoes. Schools can register to receive a free potato growing kit, supporting lesson plans and worksheets.
Learning Through Landscapes
www.ltl.org.uk
Learning through Landscapes helps children to connect with nature, become more active, learn outdoors, develop social skills and have fun. They operate in Scotland as 'Grounds for Learning' and in Wales as 'LTL Cymru'. They are currently offering Local Schools Nature Grants with £500 worth of outdoor resources.
Royal Horticultural Society
www.rhs.org.uk
RHS campaign for all schools to have a garden, and upon free registration, they will provide each school with a free start up kit, free seeds every year, newsletters and rewards for progress.
Tree Appeal
www.treeappeal.com
Tree Appeal offers a free tree or cell grow sapling of your choice.
The Woodland Trust - Nature Detectives
www.woodlandtrust.org.uk
The Woodland Trust offers resources for linking trees to the curriculum as well as free activity packs for teachers and resources for schools.
Gardening advice for schools:
British Ecological Society
www.britishecologicalsociety.org
Provides resources, in-depth information and advice, focussing on learning outside the classroom and information for those schools interested in the construction and management of ponds and hedges.
Countryside Classroom
www.countrysideclassroom.org.uk
Countryside Classroom aims to inspire and enable teachers to use food, farming and the natural environment both in and out of the classroom. The website contains a range of quality assured educational content from hundreds of contributors.
Gardening with Children
www.gardeningwithchildren.co.uk
The website contains stimulating ideas for the class and a collection of helpful factsheets.
Garden Organic
www.gardenorganic.org.uk
Garden Organic offers advice on growing your own fruit and veg, how to make your own compost, things to do in your garden each month, as well as factsheets, activity sheets for schools, growing cards and resources for teachers. The growing cards include information on vegetables, fruit, herbs, edible flowers etc., and include details such as: when to plant, harvest and prune, and what equipment you will need. The growing cards can be found here
OPAL Air Survey
www.opalexplorenature.org/airsurvey
Discover the impacts of local air quality on our natural environment. Good air quality is essential for our health and for the wellbeing of our environment. By taking part in the OPAL Air Survey you can find out about air quality near you and help our scientists answer important questions about the impacts of air quality across the UK. This survey can be done at any time of year.
Pollination Checker
www.ashridgetrees.co.uk/gardening-advice/fruit-tree-advice/pollinationchecker
Are you looking to grow your own fruit? This pollination checker can assist with the pollination of good crops and also aims to help our declining bee population.