Growing Schools in Whitley

This is my project blog, following the development of 6 schools gardens as part of the Whitley Excellence Cluster's Aspire project, in Reading. Myself and colleague Dave are working with teachers, school governers and of course the pupils to create school gardens that are healthy, abundant and sustainable landscapes. The project started in March 2006. This is my diary of the work and I hope to encourage pupils to write their own blog for their individual garden projects.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Here is the completed courtyard garden at Christchurch road infants school... the plants are hardly visible in this, but by spring it will be a riot of herbs, climbers and fruit trees. (well lets hope !) We have lifted the concrete slabs from the far side of the courtyard and replaced them with a raised bed made from oak sleepers and filled with rotted straw and elephant poo compost (!). This has been left to soak up the autumn rain and them planted into with herbs, climbers and fruiting shrubs. There will be a pear tree in the right hand corner.

The raised beds to the let and right have been treated the same way, with all those surrounding trees the soil was very dried and nutrient poor, so we have built them up and fed them in the same way. Plants include Solomon's seal, chives and perennial onions, climbing Kiwi vines, american potato bean, russian comfrey, lavender, sages and thymes, the chilean ugni bush, plus many more. We really hope the children will explore there now garden and generate an interest in some of the plants themselves.

Dave and I will be going back in the spring to fill out any gaps, and more importantly to run a teacher training session on working with the plants and ideas of how to use them.  Posted by Picasa

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