Gardeners' World

The Eco Team entered the schools wheelbarrow competition at BBC Gardeners' World 2024. The aim was to create a barrow which emphasised the theme of sustainability. While the children were keen to carry out planting that would help out invaluable pollinators like butterflies and bees, they were also becoming more aware of food miles and just how far some of the food they eat every day had travelled. Over the year the children have seen the labels on their fruit and vegetables show travel from places like Morocco, Egypt and Spain. In some cases their food had travelled over 4000 miles, creating a very large carbon footprint. So we planned to kill two birds with one stone or rather save hundreds of bees with one barrow by including a mixture of food plants and flowering herbs. We also chose plants that would be useful in our school cookery lessons. With pasta and pizza being firm favourites among our children, each plant would allow us to create a delicious sauce to use in these dishes. We thoroughly enjoyed watching our plants develop from tiny seeds into food we can actually put on our plates! We also had a fantastic day out at the NEC where we saw our wheelbarrow on display.