School gardening highlights of 2022

We asked our school growers to share their top gardening moments from this year. From swanky bug hotels and seed swapping to dahlia perfume and DIY ponds, 2022 has been full of fantastic achievements.

20 December 2022

Anderton Primary School

"Our 2022 highlight was harvesting our first ever crop of carrots after building our allotment last year. We have been so busy in 2022 and have just found out we have received our Level 3 School Gardening Award. But it’s not over yet, still all those trees to plant!"

The Little Potting Club

"The Little Potting Club is a community garden group for children and their families. We offer free gardening activities and run all year round. We have really embraced the RHS School Gardening and we are currently at our level 4. Our highlights this year are preparing and cooking corn on the cob, digging up potatoes, along with our work towards gardening alongside wildlife. We have created bug houses, a wildlife pond, a hedgehog house and we are currently working towards providing bird houses. We have also planted lots of trees this year both trees for wildlife and trees for food such as apple trees. We really love how the RHS have been so generous with their rewards when achieving each level and each one has been a big help to our little community club, the book, the voucher (we used to purchase a Blueberry bush) and the seeds have all helped us massively. We would like say a huge thank you to the RHS for running this gardening campaign. Happy gardening everyone."

Spellbrook Primary School

"Run by Well Bean Gardening, the gardening club meet after school. This year they were given the job of digging out old plants and replanting the beds directly in front of the school entrance. These photos show some of the members splitting and replanting an existing Iris in September and learning how to use leaf rakes safely to collect leaves for leaf mould in October."

Manor Fields Primary School

"Learning how to re-pot plants for Mother's Day presents in March."

Thorn Grove Primary School 

"These two members of Thorn Growers Gardening Club enjoyed tasting the first strawberries of the year from their school garden in May. They are now working towards their Level 5 School Gardening Award!" 

Community Wellbeing DOVE

"The 'Flowerpots' in Banwen harvesting their carrots, peas and potatoes back in August." 

Kids Love Nature Kindergarten at Lytchett Minster

"Selling our excess produce to parents and carers in our weekly pop up shops."

Petites Pommes et Poires

"We created a mini pond in our garden and got some pond weed from a neighbour. Within two weeks we had frogspawn, and we few weeks later we found a baby newt! Our other highlight for this year’s (home ed school) garden, is the addition of chickens. Our boys built the run with their daddy, and we are getting 5 eggs a day." 

Skool Beanz Gardening Club

"Our dahlias are always a huge hit. They were a bit late this year but soon caught up. Every week the children pick buckets of them to take home and sell on our plant stand. The dead heads get placed into mandalas or the petals get turned into confetti to throw at the end of the session or made into ‘perfume’!"

Northgate Primary School 

"The lunch-time gardening club, run by Well Bean Gardening, has been gradually improving some of the communal spaces around the school. Here we are working on a bed at the front of school, where we’ve dug in some fresh compost before we started planting. As we were adding plants the children were delighted to discover lots of worms – the gardener’s friend." 

Cedarbank School

"Moving to a new school building with amazing outdoor space and harvesting the first potato and beetroot crop to make home made chutney" 

Edward Francis Primary School

"Making ‘Bug-ingham Palace’ Bug Hotel as part of their Platinum Jubilee garden this year."

All Saints Primary School

"On the last session of 2022 the children identified evergreen shrubs then practised their secateurs skills by snipping foliage which they then made into these gorgeous table decorations to take home."

Beechwood Park School

"This year we planted 415 saplings donated by The Woodland Trust as part of the Queen's Green Canopy initiative."

FARE Lochend Community Allotment

"Our 100+ schoolchildren visit weekly & created "wondrous woodland" covering steel railings with shower curtains, planting evergreens, bulbs and bumper harvests of rainbow veg."

Feeling inspired? Why not use some of these ideas in 2023 - use this growing calendar to help you plan your growing year.