Children have been finding out where their fruit and vegetables come from at this Easter’s Bloomin’ Kids Gardening Workshops.
Around 100 children from Farnham, Fleet, Aldershot, Bentley and Alton got hands on experience of sowing broad beans, beetroot and salad seeds. They also planted out tumbling tomatoes, sweet-flavoured yellow cherry tomatoes and basil plug plants.
Iain Lynch, Town Clerk at Farnham Town Council says: “Our edible theme aimed to connect children with nature and to introduce them to the ultimate pleasure of growing their own. Each child has taken home what they planted, so I hope that in a few weeks’ time they’ll be tucking into some delicious produce and will be eager to grow more. Our Bloomin’ Kids workshops show that you do not need a large garden to become more self-sustainable as fruit, vegetables, salad and herbs can all be planted in a container on a patio or in a small corner of the garden.”
The Easter Bloomin’ Kids Gardening Workshops were organised by Farnham Town Council and were free to attend. This was thanks to a donation of £280 from Waitrose’s Community Matters green token scheme and that volunteers from the Farnham in Bloom Community Group freely give their time and expertise to lead many of the activities.
The workshops ended with an arts and crafts activity during which the children learned about the honey bee. The young gardeners were shown a real beehive and honeycomb and painted pictures of bees, sunflowers and honeycomb.
Each child went home with the fruits of their labour and a Farnham in Bloom goody bag.
Commenting after the workshop, one parent said: “I just wanted to thank you and all the other people that were involved in putting today together for the children. It was brilliant to see the kids having fun and learning too. Mine can’t wait to see what grows and sample them when they do.”
The Bloomin’ Kids Gardening Workshops are just one example of how people can get involved in Farnham in Bloom. Farnham is representing the south east in this year’s Britain in Bloom UK finals and volunteers are needed for planting, deadheading, watering, weeding and other practical tasks. Anybody who would like to get involved should email lara.miller@farnham.gov.uk.
