Cambridgeshire Gardens Trust
Allotment beds for Abbots Ripton Church of England Primary School
Abbots Ripton Church of England Primary School were lucky enough to receive a £500 grant from the CGT in the summer of 2023. This was to create some allotment beds for the front of the school on an unused area of the playing fields (photo 1) and which would be looked after by the Environment Club, which meets once a week during the lunch break. Over the following months the detailed plans were developed and refined with the help of a few of the PTA, Support Team for Abbots Ripton School (STARS).
In the spring of 2024 the material for the raised beds was purchased and the allotment beds were built by a child’s father. Four large and four smaller beds were built. Word went round about the allotment beds and offers of top soil and plants came in. Then the STARS team became stars again by moving and re-flooring an unused shed at the school, to the allotment area. This is now very conveniently sited for storing the gardening equipment (photos 2 & 3).
By late spring the beds were built and the Environment Club children filled them, learning about the use of cardboard as weed suppressant at the base of the beds, which would then also rot down over time, improving the soil. Next they added straw, left over from last year’s summer fair, and compost made at the school, before finally adding the top soil.
The Environment Club children planted tomatoes, cabbages, celeriac, courgettes, strawberries and pumpkins, which they had been given, and also sowed beetroot, salad leaves and chard seeds (photos 4-7). They also planted sunflower plants in one of the beds, closest to the school’s entrance, which looked very pretty and helped the pollinators.
After the summer holidays the Environment Club harvested the tomatoes, which the school cook prepared for the children’s lunch. They also took home some chard (photos 8 & 9) and have harvested the pumpkins, which the school cook will use in the children’s lunches.
The Environment Club is looking forward to planning what to grow in the allotment beds for themselves next year and for the school cook to use for lunches and have already been given some vegetable and flower seeds which they can start sowing in the new year.