Friday, 30 September 2016

School Gardening Club in Dubai with HDYGG

Next week I start running the after school gardening club where I teach in Dubai. I'm a keen gardener, but it's all hit and miss. I've successfully grown tomatoes, chillies, herbs, strawberries and peppers, as well as marigolds, petunias, nasturtiums and sweet peas. I've never followed a schedule, just kept an eye on the municipality planting schedule and visited their nurseries out in Warsan last week.

I've a few ideas for the sessions, but at this moment I have no idea of the numbers, the ages, the length of sessions and how long the club will run for, other than assuming till the end of term in December. I've been told I have a budget, but not how much and of course with no idea of the number of children and duration.


I can do all the planning and have a few ideas ready to run for the 1st week, until I know numbers, ages etc, but what I need is an order of planting. It's autumn in Dubai, but temps still in the high 30's and NO rain, so I can't follow a European planting scheme and the seed packets in the garden centre are imported so most, if not all seeds have to be germinated indoors until 30c and planting out isn't always that easy. No one will be around to water over the weekends and I'm not hopeful the other children will not mess with the plants at playtime.

So I'm thinking indoor plants, container vegetables and succulents with a bit of art and creativity thrown in.

If you run a gardening club in your school, particularly in Dubai, I'd love to hear from you to share some of your tips and ideas.


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13 comments:

  1. Emily C30 September 2016 at 11:27

    This sounds like a very brave idea - I would not know where to begin with planting things in that climate... Lovely though. #PoCoLo

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    1. chickenruby1 October 2016 at 07:26

      like i said it's all hit and miss, so off to the garden centre today to have a look round

      Delete
  2. Kim Carberry1 October 2016 at 00:24

    This sounds very exciting...
    I imagine it being so hard to grown anything where you are. Wishing you the best of luck x

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    1. chickenruby1 October 2016 at 07:26

      i'm amazed at how much i've been able to grow directly into the sand

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  3. Annie1 October 2016 at 01:56

    Oh this is so cool! How exciting. Sounds like a challenge to organise and plan but very rewarding :)

    Thanks for joining in again pickle x

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    1. chickenruby1 October 2016 at 07:27

      it was compulsory, i have to run a club one day a week for the older children, picked gardening as i couldn't think of anything else to do....lol

      Delete
  4. Stephanie 139a7 October 2016 at 00:16

    Look forward to see how you get on - good luck!

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  5. A Green and Rosie Life10 October 2016 at 13:14

    I used to run gardening clubs in the UK but I would have no idea what to grow in Dubai. I have a few ideas you might be able to use on my blog under "NATURE ACTIVITIES" though.

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    1. chickenruby11 October 2016 at 07:41

      I only have 45 minutes once a week, for 7 weeks, so we're making and painting pots, planting seeds, beans in plastic bags and cotton wool and they can take everything home with them at the end of the activity

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  6. Morgan Prince12 October 2016 at 22:09

    I'd be rubbish at a gardening club, although if I wasn't teaching I'd probably learn a lot. I hope all goes well for you hun. It sounds like a great project. Thanks for linking to #pocolo

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    1. chickenruby16 October 2016 at 05:12

      so far we've planted tomato seeds, made newspaper pots and talked

      Delete
  7. online dissertation writing service21 September 2017 at 20:48

    nice post

    ReplyDelete

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