Intent
To raise awareness of key issues that impact on our lives and environment and how we can play a positive role in implementing changes through garden projects and research; working with community projects to pool our knowledge, skills and energy together to make a difference to our natural world. We aim to grow food using non-chemical methods that we can sell to our local community to promote interest in healthy eating and grow diverse plants to develop the commercial nursery side and promote butterfly and bee friendly gardening to friends/family and our local community.
Implementation
Horticulture sessions take place in our potting shed, our polytunnel and within our extensive grounds around the college. Students are encouraged to follow the process of sowing, growing and eating the produce they grow so they gain a better awareness of how food is grown and the stages of its life. All plants are grown following an organic system with an emphasis on how we can impact on our environment with the methods we use e.g. composting food and plant waste. We also experiment with growing using different techniques and trialling plants that could benefit our college to produce sensory resources and areas.
To date the horticulture students have grown and sold:-
- Spring flowering pots
- Potted hyacinths
- A variety of seasonal vegetables and fruit
- Winter, spring and summer bedding plants
- Potted herbs grown from cuttings
- Summer hanging baskets and troughs
Impact
We are working with other horticultural community projects within the county to highlight the benefits that gardening and horticulture can have for all involved from the beginning stages of sowing seeds, taking cuttings and planting out bulbs and flowers. The students are also integral in seeing the produce they have grown and nurtured sold within the college, to visitors and through our online shop. Students have shown a steady increase in their understanding of the processes involved and have required less support to complete practical tasks as their confidence and pride in their work has developed.
