THEY’VE grown 14lbs of potatoes, bucketfuls of courgettes and several handfuls of peas in two short months.

Now pupils from three local schools are looking forward to harvesting even more healthy produce when they return to class again later this year.

The students from Moor End Technology College, Crosland Moor Junior School and Dryclough Infants have rolled up their sleeves to help create a vegetable garden in Beaumont Park.

The 12-metre patch is the first to be developed in a Kirklees park.

Warden Diane Clifford came up with the idea as a way of engaging with the local community. In February this year she worked with young offenders to dig out a former flower bed in the Victorian park.

Then local school children arrived in small groups in May to help replant the flowers around the park and sow their vegetable patch.

Potatoes, courgettes, marrows, broccoli, runner beans, onions and tomatoes were among the healthy foods they planted.

Four pupils from each school have since visited the park every week to help tend to their vegetables and carry out other work around the park.

Diane said: “It was quite new for me and for the kids. It was all an experiment really. We thought we would try it and see how it goes.

“We’re really pleased. It’s gone well and the kids have enjoyed it too.”

The produce is being sold at the visitor centre run by the Friends of Beaumont Park who have also been working alongside the children doing various gardening jobs around the site.

The proceeds will be used to keep the project going and support the schools in other environmental projects in the park.

Diane added: “They have been very enthusiastic, which was good to see, and have had to work in all weathers without too much complaining.

“It was all about doing something different and letting the children learn about growing things.

“I’m looking forward to welcoming them back in September.”

The project has encouraged some of the children to take up gardening out of school too.

Mohammed Tayyab, 14, from Moor End Technical College, enjoyed helping the environment so much that he also started growing his own potatoes, strawberries and coriander at home.

Nine-year-old Jordan Barratt from Crosland Moor Junior School has become a keen member of his school’s garden club and is also growing flowers at home.

He said he enjoyed being able to pick, wash and eat vegetables he had helped to grow.