| Little Growers this year for the seven schools involved has been a great success. There have been a few mistakes here & there but all in all the children have achieved a very high standard of growing. I’m really impressed with what they have grown this year; in fact their success would have put many “Big Growers” to shame. The concept seems to have worked very well indeed. Little Growers has now been officially formed and is a “not for profit Community Interest Company” Our intensions for 2009 are to provide all the equipment to 100 additional schools. We are at present applying for grants to raise £70,000, fingers crossed these will be successful and the additional schools & children will all benefit. |
| I would like to congratulate Hillside Primary School in winning the loofah competition. They managed to produce seven loofahs, well done. I personally only managed to grow three. I would also like to thank HydroGarden for providing the prize. The children at Hillside will now be able to grow herbs & lettuce in the AeroGarden provided by HydroGarden. It will also show them different & amazing methods of plant production.I would also like to congratulate Hawthorns Primary School, as they entered some of their produce in a local horticultural show in which they received 2nd prize for their entry. Once again well done.The Little Growers business plan is now available for all to see on the home page of the website. Please feel free to download & read it. Pass it on to anyone who you may feel might be interested in helping support Little Growers. The more people learn & hear about Little Growers the greater the chance we have of making it a success. Please follow this link to see the business plan.Little Growers would also like to announce that Sutton Seeds have now been added to the sponsors. They have kindly offered to provide the seeds to all the schools involved. We would like to thank them for their kind generosity.There has been a slight revision to the original concept rolled out by Little Growers in 2008. For 2009 all the schools involved will be asked to grow from seed, with the seeds provided by Sutton Seeds. Each school will be provided with a window sill propagation unit kindly supplied by Garland Products, called the Super 7. We feel this will benefit the children further as they will be able to select their seeds of choice, germinate them and get them ready to be transplanted into the greenhouses in late spring. In the business plan on the home page we previously stated that due to the logistics of shipping compost around the United Kingdom that each school would need to source their own from a local garden centre. After much thought we are going to talk with Scotts to see if we can arrange to have compost delivered to local garden centres so that schools in the area can collect the required amount for Little Growers 2009. We will keep all the schools involved in 2009 updated on this issue. Once it is confirmed and the schools selected, we will have a better idea of how the logistics can be arranged.After Christmas once the children return back to school we will be sending out information to over 1,500 schools around the United Kingdom, inviting them to be part of Little Growers 2009. As mentioned previously there will be 100 available places, subject to the approval of the grants. The first 100 schools to contact us at info@littlegrowers.co.uk will be selected. Initially we had intended to place all the interested schools in a hat and select them at random. We have now decided to select the schools on a first come first served basis. If anyone would like to nominate a school where your children attend prior to the mail out then please let us know before Christmas at the above email address. We can then contact any schools put forward and add them to the Little Growers list for 2009. Please ensure that the school you intend to nominate is aware that you will be nominating them. If a school is not interested please do not nominate them.The amount of money raised through sales made via the AutoPot on-line shop & donated to Little Growers since March 2008 is £507.12. Little Growers would like to thank everyone that has helped contribute. If everyone simply adds “Little Growers” to the comments box more money can be raised, please remember to do this when placing an order over the value of £30.00 (excluding delivery).Finally I would like to thank all the sponsors that have helped Little Growers for 2008 and for 2009. Your assistance and kindness is much appreciated. I’m sure all the children from all the schools feel the same and have also benefited in a positive way. All the sponsors can be viewed by following this link.Happy Growing.. Jason.S.Ralph-Smith (Director & Founder) Of AutoPot & Little Growers |