The next stage for the garden is to increase the involvement of the children, so that they can follow the growth and harvesting of the produce. I'd also like to start a veg gardening club so that children who want to increase their gardening skills and knowledge can do so. And so that they can be used as slave labour (just kidding PTA).
Watering is a proving a problem as the raised beds dry out very quickly - so I'm looking for volunteer parents who could keep an eye on things at pick-up or drop-off. Plus, plants in the greenhouse may need watering every day, certainly when it's very sunny. Please send me an email me if you can help.
During the mega planting day earlier this week (Monday), I kept meaning to check on the tomatoes still in the 'greenhouse' at Honeywell School, as they were in small
pots and it was very hot. On Tuesday morning I realised that I had completely forgotten, and whizzed over to find ten 'dead' tomato plants. I should have taken a photo because two hours later, amazingly, all but one had recovered completely after being given a good drink. I've seen revivals before, but these really did look 
very dead. I'm thinking of filming the process - taking a plant and starving it of 
water, letting it 'die' and then filming the revival, time lapse style - and adding it to the blog.We've grown over 100 tomato plants from seed; varieties include Tornado F1, Alicante, Gardener's Delight, Tres Cantos, Dutchman, Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifter, Brandywine, Marmande, Cream Sausage, Mr Stripey Denar & Oregon Spring. You'll see in the photos the progress from tiny seedlings through to decent sized plants in pots. Last year I ended up with tons of green tomatoes, but hopefully there'll be plenty of time for ripening this year as they're so much earlier - sun willing. We've already sold quite a few plants to parents, to grow in their own gardens. Battersea, the natural home of the tomato!
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