Main content

Jacky Longstaff's views of West Jesmond Primary School's allotment

As the seasons cycle new school pupils plant and harvest in their own patch of Town Moor. Photographs: Jacky Longstaff

Gallery
9/14

Realising you cannot pick apples until the autumn

"You get children seeing how Brussels sprouts grow or where a broad bean comes from."

  • West Jesmond Primary School pupils prepare to muck in
  • Apples and tomatoes
  • Picking ripe fruit in a corner of the Town Moor
  • Beans need picking, potatoes need digging up and the sweet peas need pruning
  • Introducing pupils to the plants brought to life by last year's class
  • Essential, fascinating and endlessly entertaining manure
  • Tending the squash beds
  • Racing snails on an allotment plot that has grown food since WW2
  • Realising you cannot pick apples until the autumn
  • The pupils are happy because "you get to pick stuff"
  • Learning to pick what is ripe and leave the rest to grow
  • The allotment has been cultivated for decades
  • Growing your own pepper plant
  • "It's really fun because you get to pick stuff"