Allotment volunteers team up with Aylesbury Vale village school to inspire next generation of veg growers

Volunteers from a village allotment society are aiming to inspire the next generation of veg growers by running an Eco Club for pupils at the local primary school.

Steeple Claydon Allotment and Horticultural Society has teamed up with Steeple Claydon Primary School to set up the weekly club.

The lunchtime sessions are run by committee members Harriet Bull and Kim Proffitt and, over the course of a year, about 80 children will have the opportunity to grow and harvest vegetables, fruit and flowers in the school allotment and enjoy nature-related arts and crafts.

Since September the children have sown spinach, chard and rocket, made paper butterflies, collected items on an autumn foraging walk, made seasonal paintings from collected leaves, stuffed bug hotels and enjoyed a Halloween crafting session.

Men in Sheds Winslow built and donated bird boxes for the project, along with bug hotels which the children filled with pine cones, twigs, wood shavings and leaves ready to be placed around the school grounds. The group is also making measuring sticks to help pupils plant crops the correct distance apart.

A conscious effort is made to recycle and reuse items and minimise the purchase of new items. Before the summer holidays, children planted flowers in old welly boots to make a colourful display.

Over the next few months, children will decorate their own planters and create plant labels and watering cans from old milk bottles.

They are also looking forward to growing peas, beans, potatoes, tomatoes, pumpkins, courgettes, sunflowers, nasturtiums and sweet peas.