An Introduction to the Mini Gardeners Club

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The Mini Gardeners Club was founded in 2022 by Tatyana and Shannon. A project inspired by their own Mini Gardeners, Finn and Noah. Watching the twins’ sense of awe and wonder unfold as they grew from babies to toddlers at our family allotment inspired them to share their experiences with other families - for children and their parents to engage with nature, enjoy the outdoors and become invested in the environment around them through a love of growing. Their ethos is that of community, bringing people together in harmony with the environment. Their vision, to inspire this generation and the next to become invested in caring for nature by building their skills and knowledge, reaping the benefits of the outdoor world and the pleasure it can bring. Tatyana and Shannon (@diaryofaladygardener) run workshops for families to get involved in the garden, they work with schools to provide sessions for children to develop and grow in their school gardens and they host pop up events across North Devon in partnership with different organisations and projects. 

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LANDKEY SCHOOL PROJECT
 

The Landkey School Garden project started in the Autumn term of 2022, beginning with two community volunteer days to clear an overgrown and unusable jungle of brambles and nettles within the school grounds, Children, parents and staff came together to kick start the project and did a fantastic job getting to work to transform this space into a useable and useful area for outdoor learning. Groups of children from across the school have worked with Shannon every week over the winter to prepare the gardens, and the changes have been incredible. Raised beds have been woven out of willow which was cut down elsewhere in the school and filled with compost, garlic and green manures for the winter months, a den building section has been established which is a firm favourite with the children. Teepee structures have been created to add structure to the garden and a whole lot of clearing has been done to reduce the amount of brambles and nettles in the space. The focus for the spring term was to get seeds and seedlings started and to bring more life into the space with signage designed by the children, the addition of new flowers and vegetables to the space and a focus on getting woodchip paths laid to stop the garden from being slippery when wet. In the summer term, we’ve focused on increasing the biodiversity of the space with wildflowers, building a permaculture herb spiral as a small sensory garden and hopefully, beginning to harvest our first crops! 

 

You can follow what Shannon and Tatyana get up to with the Mini Gardeners Project by following them on Facebook or Instagram @theminigardenersclub and Shannon’s gardening adventures @diaryofaladygardener .