Fruit growing diary

Activity

Write a month by month account of all the gardening tasks that you need to do to keep the fruit garden healthy and productive.

  • Estimated time: 30 minutes
  • Location: Outdoors & Indoors
  • School term: All year round
  • Level of experience: No experience needed
  • Subject(s): English, Maths

Learning objectives

  • Understand the tasks that are required for successful fruit harvests
  • Display information in a visual format

Essential background information

Preparation

Gather materials required, including planners, information sheets and any other books on fruit growing.

Look at the fruit growing in your school garden or allotment beforehand.

Equipment

  • Fruit Gardening Calendar
  • Blank Month by Month Planner
  • Fruit catalogues or magazines with pictures of fruit
  • A4 paper, pens, glue and scissors

Step by step

  1. Choose a crop and make a list of the different gardening tasks that need to be done in the fruit garden to make it produce a lot of fruit in the coming year. Look at the Fruit Gardening Calendar.
  2. Decide upon the best time of year to do these tasks.
  3. Make a simple month by month diary of gardening tasks using the blank month by month planner. Either write, draw or use pictures to do this.
  4. Use the Fruit Gardening Calendar to work out what needs to be done. Share with the rest of the group if they have a different fruit crop and compare when you will be busy in your fruit garden.
  5. If you have a larger garden planner for your school garden, add in these tasks that need to be done in it now so you don’t forget.

Hints & tips

  • If time is limited, share out the fruit amongst the group. Each person finds out the gardening tasks for their fruit.
  • With younger pupils, just look at one fruit with the whole group.
  • Use this activity as aprt of Focus on Fruit class growing topic.