What I'm growing this year

That's an impressive list. You work at an enlightened school. How many pupils are there?

Nice list. Can imagine all those cherry toms disappearing into little mouths when your backs turned. Lets hope they don't get them confused with the Cherry Bombz.

Is it green or red Shisho? I've a packet of red Shisho but haven't decided if i'm going to sow it, the places I've read say that it's mainly used to give colour to a certain type of pickle. Not sure everyone would like the pickled cucumbers to be blood red (I would, but I'd probably have to stuff pickled onions with something so they look like eyeballs if I was going to use that in pickles).

Nice list, but no parsnips?

Loads of nice veg there and an enormous amount of space. The indoor riding school at our livery stables is 20m by 40m so you have 3/4 of that area in your 2 polytunnels - that's HUGE!

That's seriously large poly tunnels for a school! How old are the kids? That's going to be very full on keeping those going.

Are you planting everything undercover?
Is the school closed over the summer?

Can you explain what you mean by "feminized cucumbers" please, as I thought Telegraph had male/female flowers.

So unfortunately this gets a bit complicated, the garden was designed and funded by the previous headmaster who believed gardening was as important as any other subject, but due to the very restrictive school syllabus and standardised teaching methods, not to mention lack of funding, it's no longer entirely run by the school. The land is sublet to a non-profit and a kindergarten, I work for both. We sell the veg to the teachers, parents & to local campsites, all the money is reinvested.

So while the secondary school (of approx 1700 kids) partake in some gardening, due to the kids having to give up their lunch time or free time, it's not very popular. The kids from the kindergarten however are there most days with me for a couple of hours in the morning.


All the chillies are in a seperate tunnel for this reason! haha

It's called bi-colour shisho, green on the top of the leaf, purple on the bottom. It has an aniseed-like taste and the flowers are very sweet.

I've seen it used in herbal drinks and it turns the water a nice shade of purple, haven't tried it myself but will this year.

Ha so parsnips are one that slipped my mind this year, probably due to the fact last year I sowed loads without realising they were out of date seeds! Shame really as I'm sure you're aware the taste of a homegrown parsnip is fantastic.

We also have 40+ blackberry plants, and approx 50 fruit trees outside. The site is around 2 acres but if I'm honest the size of the polytunnels is a bit disproportionate for the amount of outdoor space. Will update with photos when I sort my phone out!

It's a lot of work and I was exhausted last summer! Luckily I'm still young so can handle a graft

All cucumbers, melons, aubergines, peppers, the vast majority of the tomatoes, half the courgettes, & the salanova lettuce go indoors. Everything else is outside. Have a large heated propagator so everything going indoors is started nice and early.

It is shut over summer but I'm still there.

Hey it's 'Telegraph Improved' an all-female F1 variety, the others are also all-female varieites, the seeds are pricey but it's worth it imo.

Please keep us updated....would love to see some photos! A few more posts and you can load some up.
But OMG.....40 blackberry plants

It's a pity that the kids don't get involved as much. Think how it could be linked to their lessons - Home Economics (do they still call it that) obviously with the cooking but think things like History (the plants the tudors grew), English Lit (the herbs mentioned in Shakespeare's plays), Geography (plants from Asia, South America, Europe, etc), Art (plants for dyes and pigments)

I assumed they were planted around the perimeter like a cattle kraal to keep the kids in. The thornier the better.