RHS Gardening School Level 5
From Garden to Plate: Growing Year-Round at Prince’s Mead
At Prince’s Mead, our RHS Level 5 Gardening School journey is rooted in every season, every year group, and every corner of our curriculum. Gardening is part of who we are and it’s something we do come rain or shine!
Winter: Planning, Building & Giving Back
Even in the coldest months, our gardening club never rests. Last winter, we helped landscape our new plot and organise our new garden shed. We crafted plant labels from recycled materials and made clay cane toppers, adding colour while keeping everyone safe.
Spring: Sowing, Growing & Early Harvests
Despite an extremely wet spring, the children showed resilience and enthusiasm. We sowed early potatoes and loved earthing them up each week, eventually digging a bumper crop for our school kitchen. Alongside that, we grew garlic, onions, and winter spinach, which was whizzed into delicious smoothies for snack time. Our new herb bed, bursting with parsley, thyme, mint and oregano, is now a favourite with our school chef.
Summer: Bountiful Crops & Community
Summer brought rich rewards: carrots, courgettes, broad beans, sweetcorn, spring onions, salad leaves, chillis, squash and more – all grown, tended, and harvested by the children for our school meals. Although the tomato crop failed in the wet, we enjoyed juicy strawberries and thornless blackberries. The children took strawberry runners home to nurture and take pride in. Watering and weeding the garden is entirely the children’s responsibility, and they take great care in their duties.
Our gardening club also raised money for charity at the PMA Summer Fêtê, running a successful stall selling homegrown plants and sharing our story with the wider school community.
Autumn: Seed Saving & Looking Ahead
Autumn saw our gardeners collecting and labelling seeds from sunflowers, cosmos, sweet peas, wallflowers, and more, ready for next year’s planting. Though our pumpkins struggled in the rain, we proudly built a beautiful squash arch to frame the garden entrance. We’ve also been busy layering tulip and iris bulbs in our school colours for a spring bloom, and planting out cuttings from our hedge to frame the garden for the future.
We’ve nurtured oak saplings from acorns, pressed late autumn flowers, and watched caterpillars become butterflies – a living reminder of change and growth.
Indoors & Wet Days: Reflection & Planning
When the weather keeps us inside, we don’t stop. Our gardeners plan next year’s planting, think through crop rotation, make labels, sort seeds, and even wash pots and prepare rainwater collection. We have made our own leaf mould from fallen leaves – turning nature’s leftovers into rich compost.
Our work is carefully recorded each week in our garden diary, capturing not just what we do, but what we learn and how we grow.
Rooted in Learning, Growing for Life
At Prince’s Mead, our gardening programme is about much more than plants. It teaches patience, responsibility, sustainability and teamwork, while linking directly to science, design technology, geography and personal development. Most importantly, it connects our children to the food they eat, the planet they live on, and the joy of nurturing something from seed to supper.
We are proud to be an RHS Level 5 Gardening School and prouder still of the young growers who make it all possible.
