The Little Hands Garden Project

October 18, 2011 in Out in the Community | 0 comments

We’ve teamed up to create the Little Hands Garden Project to provide the plants and the know-how for youngsters to grow the freshest and best seasonal produce in their own school kitchen gardens.

The schools’ winter rocket garden is a box brimming with organic baby plants packed in straw - including broad beans, rhubarb crowns, winter lettuces, hardy herbs and brassicas – most of which should be ready for sale at the school Christmas Fayres.

“Getting children into growing their own fruit, veg and herbs is a wonderful way of keeping them active, making them inquisitive about the outside world and encouraging them to question where the food they eat actually comes from,” says Sean Williams of cornishfoodmarket.co.uk.

“We hope the children will love growing their winter produce and that with their school communities and families they’ll want to carry on collecting points towards their spring and summer rocket gardens too.”
Rocket Gardens’ Mike Kitchen adds, “As well as being great fun Little Hands is a real opportunity here in Cornwall to spread the gospel within communities about the multiple benefits of eating local food - whether it’s been grown by a local farmer or by a child in your school.”

Getting children out and about is high up the national priority list with the government’s Learning Outside the Classroom manifesto making it clear that exposing children to the world around them is an essential part of learning and personal development.

Most schools in the Falmouth/Penryn area, as well as Sennen School, are taking part in the first phase of the Little Hands Garden Project. Among them is King Charles in Falmouth – whose keen gardeners have just been declared “outstanding” in the Royal Horticultural Society’s “It’s Your Neighbourhood” award.

Schools signed up so far are Marlborough School, Penryn Infant School, Penryn Junior School, Flushing School, Mawnan Smith School, King Charles School, Falmouth Primary School, Mabe Primary School, St Mary’s Primary, Mylor Bridge Primary School, Constantine School, Sennen School, Falmouth Secondary School, Penryn Senior School, Stithians School.