RHS Gardening Through The Year: Month-by-month Planning Instructions and Inspiration

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Each judge on this year's panel has a passion for school gardening.They are: George Hassall, RHS Young Ambassador and Young School Gardener of the Year 2014; Frances Tophill, horticulturist, author and TV presenter; and Matt Willer, Founder of The Papillion Project and RHS School Gardening Champion of the Year 2018.

If your school is outside of the UK you can register as a ‘group’ for the RHS Campaign for School Gardening. You can work your way through our five School Gardening Awards. The Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum has a great range of free resources for EYFS, KS1, KS2, KS3 and KS4, including a wildflower meadow spotting sheet and a guide to killer plants.As this is a school competition we can’t accept nominations for teams or champions from private nurseries, playgroups, youth groups, youth clubs, uniformed groups, child-minders and home educators. However, these groups and individuals can still register for the RHS Campaign for School Gardening and work their way through our five School Gardening Awards. The RHS School Gardening Team of the Year could be a lunchtime gardening group, an after-school eco club, a tutor group, forest school club or a school-wide, cross-year-group gardening initiative. As long as the team is a group of school gardeners who have demonstrated exceptional passion, dedication and interest in gardening and meet the criteria outlined we'd love to hear about them. Frequent use is key to using a journal, so set reminders to yourself on your phone, or leave it somewhere visible and handy, to ensure you regularly return to log your gardening progress. That said, when the season is in full swing (May-August) and you’re hoeing weeds like crazy and weighed down with watering cans, it’s likely you won’t be thinking of your journal. However, come harvest time, remember to jot down your yields - and what you most enjoyed eating! I find it useful to record whether I start crops off on the windowsill or in the greenhouse, and then again once they’ve been hardened off. What insect damage and diseases affected your crops, and how could you avoid them next year? Sometimes it’s just a case of commenting ‘grow more’ when something was successful, yet you didn’t have enough of it for the pot.

The nominated adult (aged 18 years and over) must be working or volunteering at a school registered to the RHS Campaign for School Gardening that is within the UK (England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland). Everyone in the nominated team must attend a school registered to the RHS Campaign for School Gardening that is within the UK (England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland). If the school is not currently registered, you can register onlinefor free.The person nominating can then complete a nomination form for the Champion or Team. No. The RHS School Gardeners of the Year competition is open to UK residents, excluding i) employees, agents or subcontractors of the RHS, ii) any Competition sponsor or its employees, agents or subcontractors, iii) the immediate families of such employees, agents, subcontractors or sponsors. The Countryside Classroom offers a complete series of ready to go lesson plans for teachers looking to run gardening clubs in KS1 and KS2, including powerpoints. Can a team or individual who has been a finalist or winner in this competition before be nominated again?No. The prizes must be accepted as stated and cannot be altered. There will be no cash alternatives. Vouchers cannot be exchanged for their value. There will be ten finalists for the RHS School Gardening Team of the Yearcategory, two of these will be chosen as overall winners for the category. There will be five finalists for the RHS School Gardening Champion of the Yearcategory, one of these finalists will be chosen as the overall category winner. What I’ve learnt Wait until the end of March to sow tomatoes indoors (or in a heated propagator in the greenhouse). Young plants can’t go in the cold greenhouse or outside until summer, and too often mine became leggy when sown too early. Whatever your level of skills in the garden, expert advice from the well-known gardener, Ian Spence, will help you keep your garden thriving all year round. RHS Gardening Through The Year is a must-have for anyone who has a green thumb!

This is not intended to be a full statement of all your rights under the Distance Selling Regulations. Full details of your rights under the Distance Selling Regulations are available in the UK from your local Citizens' Advice Bureau or your Local Authority's Trading Standards Office. Finally, I’m often inspired by new and unusual veg I see in other gardens or am introduced to by recommendation. Kalettes (like mini kale florets on a Brussels sprout plant) were one such example, with which I had first time success - see photo! Watering - particularly containers, and new plants, preferably with grey recycled water or stored rainwater PDF versions of the nomination forms are available here: RHS School Gardening Team of the Year PDF and RHS School Gardening Champion of the Year PDF to enable the forms to be viewed offline. All applications however should be submitted via our online nomination forms. the questions are designed to give you the opportunity to really sell the nominee so make sure you use the space to get across how your nominee meets the criteria and ensure your answers cover what the question has askedAs you sow, write down the date, but also note the compost you used. Once they've germinated, notice how different seedlings perform. Would this compost be more suited to potting on perhaps, or maybe you’d ‘never buy it again!’? Additional things to add are temperatures for germination (if using a propagator), weather conditions, or if certain veg did better planted as modules/plugs or direct-sown. The person making the nomination must be an adult (age 18 and over) and must be an appointed representative of a school. For example a teacher, teaching assistant, member of the Senior Leadership Team, parent helper or volunteer or a school governor.