David Domoney

Tag: gardening for kids

  • Cultivation Street: Guide To Photographing Your Entry

    Cultivation Street: Guide To Photographing Your Entry

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    By now your garden projects should be coming into or are in full bloom, so remember to keep photographing it! Even if these aren’t the final photos for your entry, you can show the judges and the Cultivation Street team just how your projects have progressed and developed. Remember to create a record for yourselves.

    Here are our top tips for making sure you capture the best angle!

     

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    Front Gardens/Streets

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    Make sure you take photos of the whole street or single project from the road and pavement. For multiple front gardens its best looking down the street, to show how all the gardens come together. Finally snap some front-facing shots looking into each garden.

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    Bernadette Hancock’s Front Garden in Letchworth

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    Remember to hide wheelie bins and other distractions, and keep taking progress photos as your plants bloom and grow.

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    School Gardens

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    Keep a photographic record of your projects to remind the children of their achievements. We and the judges absolutely love to see snaps of the kids getting stuck in with their hands dirty!

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    Ramridge Primary School, Luton

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    Minety Pre-School, Malmesbury

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    When you take photos, try to include everything and get a few different angles. You can also try kneeling down to get a child’s-eye view of the garden.

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    Community Projects

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    For the judges, the rules are similar to those above. Take snaps of the whole project, then focus in on some of your favourite details. Try and get before and after shots to show the judges (and yourselves) what a difference your projects have made.

    We want to see people! Get some members of the community in the photos! There’s no need to be camera shy!

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    Stanford Avenue Community Garden

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    You can also take photos through the seasons, to show how your gardens are coming along. It’s easy to forget how lovely the spring bulbs looked when your garden is full of autumn fruits and flowers!

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    Quick tips to taking a good photograph

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    • Consider the light – How is it interacting with your garden and where is it coming from? A light source coming from side angles will create a more interesting photo.
    • Keep it simple – Don’t try and cram too much into your frame.
    • Perspective – Give a few different angles a try! Kneel, lie down, crouch or even raise your camera higher than normal.
    • Be aware of backgrounds – Hide those wheelie bins, remove any rubbish etc. So many great photos can be ruined by not considering what’s actually in the whole frame.
    • People! – Provide photos of your projects and then show us who works on them and who’s involved.
    • Break the rules – Experiment and fundamentally HAVE FUN!

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    Remember – to be considered for judging, you must submit photos of your entry before 1st August.

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  • Visiting school gardening winners Cranberry Academy

    Visiting school gardening winners Cranberry Academy

    David Domoney Cranberry Academy RHS

    Cranberry Academy in Cheshire has been awarded the title of ‘most inspiring event’ as part of the ‘Get Your Grown-ups Growing’ campaign run by the RHS Campaign for School Gardening.

    And I had the honour of presenting them with their prize on 1 May: a fantastic Hartley Botanic Wisley 8 greenhouse worth £4000!

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    Scarecrows made by Cranberry Academy pupils
    Scarecrows made by Cranberry Academy pupils

    Get Your Grown-ups Growing is a great initiative for school gardening. Throughout October, schools invite parents, grandparents, carers, friends and members of the local community to help pupils in the garden.

    Cranberry Academy made the event extra special. They devoted a whole week to gardening, and challenged each class to design the best scarecrow, wind chime, insect house and recycled planter.

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    When the grown-ups came along, they helped pupils build two new raised beds and plant 100 spring bulbs, 100 onion sets and sow over 30 pea plants!

    The academy now hopes to use the greenhouse to focus on edible gardening. Teaching assistant Jane Sawdon said the school wanted all children to know how to sow, grow, harvest and cook their own food.

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    The school also plans to install water butts and compost bins, and plant potatoes, vegetables, soft fruit shrubs and a 14 tree fruit orchard.

    It’s fantastic to see so many children getting inspired by gardening, and to see parents, relatives and the local community pitching in to help out.

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    Last year over 1900 schools joined the Get Your Grown-ups Growing campaign. This year’s campaign launched on Thursday 1 May, and I hope even more schools will take part in such a fantastic initiative.

    To find out how to get involved, click here.

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  • Why gardening is so important for children

    Why gardening is so important for children

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    Launching an RHS school gardening project in Cardiff
    Launching an RHS school gardening project in Cardiff

    As a boy I played in the garden all the time. There were no computer games or mobile phones

    I had a cap gun and ran around pretending I was in Starsky and Hutch. I climbed apple trees and made bows and arrows out of twigs and string.

    When I wasn’t doing playing in the garden, I was working in it with my brother and sister. Both my parents were keen gardeners and we earned our pocket money by helping out.

    We were lucky enough to have a medium-sized garden with a big lawn. Each of us kids had our own border to grow stuff in. I used to buy plants from the church fete for mine.

    One of my favourites was Berginia Elephant-ear. The foliage is rubbery and, as the name suggests, the leaves look just like green elephant’s ears! They flower in spring and they’re as hard as nails.

    Another was Stachys, which has soft, fluffy foliage that earned it the nickname Lamb’s Ears. It’s a ground-covering perennial with leaves that last into autumn or winter, though the plant is not properly evergreen.

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    I loved tactile plants like that. I’d walk around the garden appreciating the textures, marvelling at the colours and enjoying the fragrances. That’s how I started growing things. From school I went to horticultural college.

    But I was lucky. I believe every child across Britain should have access to a garden and that’s why I’m a passionate supporter of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Campaign for School Gardens.

    It aims to encourage all schools to get children growing, demonstrating the value of gardening in teaching life skills and contributing to good physical and mental health and helping kids to grow into adults who care about the environment. It also shows how gardens can contribute to a sustainable environment.

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    Getting our hands dirty at an RHS school garden in Cardiff
    Getting our hands dirty at an RHS school garden in Cardiff

    So far, over 18,500 schools have signed up to the campaign.  But there are still around 12,000 to go, so if you’re a teacher get online here for advice, resources and a free starter pack full of information.

    I also set up the Schools category of my Cultivation Street campaign to recognise and reward schools that have encouraged their pupils to get gardening.

    Want to enter your school garden into our competition to win £2000 of National Garden Gift Vouchers? Order your free starter pack now!

    And finally, if you’re interested in working in horticulture, check out growcareers.co.uk. It’s a great initiative set up by the horticultural industry to help attract new talent. You’ll find tons of information and advice about finding your feet – and a job. Best of luck!

    Join our campaigns and let’s get children gardening!

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