It’s been a busy month for us here at Growhampton with spring well and truly on its way and there is so much to do in the garden. 

We’ve been out in the fresh air pulling out our winter crops and starting to make way for the spring plantings. We will harvest the last of our winter kale this week. Currently it is pushing out florets which are absolutely delicious when harvested and eaten just like young tender stems – great in a stir fry. 

Kale flowers are edible and delicious so give them a try if your Winter kale is starting to flower. We’ve started sowing spinach, oriental vegetables, beetroots and peas and of course there will be much more to come which you can read about over the coming weeks.

We also ran an awareness and fundraising event with one of our student societies – the MS Society whereby students made a donation to the MS Trust and received some radish seeds. Together we then sowed these seeds and will harvest some delicious radishes in a few weeks time; which will be sold at our weekly farmers market on Thursday lunch time. The money raised from the sale of these radishes will also be donated to the MS Trust. What a great student-led initiative that we were more than happy to support.

Lastly, we recently taught some future Primary Education teachers how to sow seeds. These are the passionate young people who have the incredibly important opportunity to change the attitudes and behaviours of our future generations; to bring the classroom outdoors and to unite their pupils with the environment and where their food comes from. 

This, my friends, is exactly why I get out of bed on a cold winters morning; this is what we’re all about. So to be part of showing these young future teachers how to sow seeds and seeing the potential of its outward ripple effect when they then teach our younger generations...I cannot even express in words.

Enjoy the photos and have a very happy Spring.

Joel

Joel Williams is the Grower for the University of Roehampton Students' Union's Growhampton project