TO encourage green fingers in all the primary-aged schoolchildren in Bude and Stratton, Transition Bude’s Growing Club has donated a plant to every single one of them.

That’s 830 tomatoes, sweet peppers, chillies, strawberries, peas and beans, delivered to Bude Primary Academy and Stratton Primary School. It was an impressive sight to see the stream of students at home-time all leaving the schools proudly holding plant pots.

Due to COVID restrictions, the environmental group was unable to take the plants directly into classrooms, so instead provided an accompanying video explaining how to care for the plants. To watch this video, visit Transition Bude’s channel on YouTube and search for ‘Get Into Growing Schools’.

The plants were grown from seed by Transition Bude’s Growing Club at Rob Meredith’s smallholding in Pyworthy. It was part of the ‘Transition: Bounce Forward’ project, funded by The National Lottery Community Fund.

Transition Bude’s Jackie Diffey said: “We wanted the children to care for their plants, enjoy eating their own produce and be inspired to grow more. Many thanks to Sophie Adey of Relax Kids for taking them into Bude Primary Academy and also to the generous donations of plant pots from the general public. We want to reach out to everyone in our area who has ever thought about growing their own food but doesn’t know where to start.”

This philosophy was also central to the Free Food Festival held at the Neetside Orchard in April, organised by Transition Bude and Bude Friends of the Earth. More seedlings were given away (bringing the total to over 1,000) and there were several workshops including how to make wildflower bee bombs and take cuttings.

Jackie would love to hear updates on the school children’s plants and hopes that parents will sign up to the Transition Bude Growing Club on Facebook, not only to share pictures of the growing plants but as a way of giving and receiving gardening help, advice and updates on future growing projects.

Co-worker Philippa Purchase added: “We hope to have a follow-up session with the schoolchildren in September about how to save seeds and then they can start all over again with their own seeds — a useful lesson in the plant life-cycle and a reminder that #foodisfree.”

People can also find more videos from the Growing Club with useful gardening tips at www.youtube.com/watch?v=13XSV88WOHc