St. Vincents Primary School

Growing at School

We are extremely fortunate in St. Vincents to have a long-established garden at the back of our school. We have planted potatoes, onions, peas, lettuce, pumpkins and strawberries in our raised beds for many years. In November 2023, we received four more raised beds as part of the “Grow at School” initiative supported by Sláintecare, Cork City Council and GIY.

Organic produce

 

Our school garden is now compromised of eight raised beds in which we grow; potatoes, onions, peas, French beans, lettuce, carrots and a selection of herbs. We also have an apple tree and raspberry bushes. Of course, all our produce is totally organic. We have also planted flowers and wildflowers around the garden to help save the bees.

Sowing & Harvesting

The children in our school sow the seeds in their classrooms every year and transplant their fruit and vegetable plants into the raised beds every spring. They also sow and grow flowers from seed every year to plant in window boxes, flower beds and planters situated around our school. Once we have harvested our crops in autumn our children cook using their own produce. Our homemade organic vegetable soup is a firm favourite!