Here is an idea for a solar fountain, this is at Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales. They have made a man from old copper pipe and a couple of old halogen spots and he is holding the panel up to the sun, when the sun shines of the course fountain issues forth. Nice idea, maybe it is adaptable for the schools garden project, dave and I are vboth keen to get a solar energy feature into at least one or two of the project gardens 

We can see the daffodils are out at Geoffrey Field junior school, Dave visited the site yesterday for a preliminary survey, cant wait to hear more ideas about what the school is planning for this space 

Here is the area covered by the map of Blagdon nursery school (see previous posting) 

Planning the garden. Pupils and teachers at Blagdon nursery school have already started planning their garden and have chosen a nautical theme, utilising the old boat in the plan as part of the design. All good gardens start with a decent map, it is obviously important to get in all the existing features first and get it to some kind of scale. I want to congratulate the those concerend for this lovely map, they have obviously worked very hard on it. Fantastic! 

Flowform. Rather than just flowing straight through, the swirling motion of the water passing through the flowform creates a pulse and the water swishes from left to right between the two sides of the structure. This is an elegant piece of natural design, illustrating how water has shape and form as well as motion, and it creates a beautiful babbling brook like sound as water flows through a series of the forms. This is one of the many ideas we are assembling for the growing schools project in Whitely.  

Rainbow garden; the theme for the first garden project is Rainbow garden, celebrating the amazing diversity of the community it represents. Here is a plant we will be using the garden, the edible and colourful Day Lilly, or Hemeracallis, i think this one's a Stafford. Not only are these delicate flowers edible, filling your senses with their delicately fragrant scent, but as we discovered on the roof garden project, the leaves can be woven to make a strong rope from its fibres, apparently that is the material espadrilles; those French rope soled shoes are made from .

There are some great opportunities for the garden, all this fence work to grow things up and maybe weave things into. The theme is going to be a Rainbow garden, so any ideas out there? send them in wont you?

Here is the yard of New Christchurch school, the first one that we have visited to start building a design for

Hi, this is a new blog that will chart the development of a cluster of schools gardens in Whitley Reading Berkshire, UK. A groups of 10 schools have come together to raise some money so they can develop their landscapes, making them attractive and productive but more importantly to help build a relationship between the pupils and the environment.

We are only really interested in low maintenance resource efficeint forest type gardens, as pioneered by Robert Hart in Wenlock Shropshire and embraced by the permaculture and sustainable design community around the world.

So look out for rainwater harvesting features, solar fountains, all sorts of interesting plants; herbs, fruiting trees and bushes from UK and around the world.