The garden over the summer

Amazing to think that just 14 months ago we were faced with a wilderness and an unassembled show garden stacked in heaps. What a busy time we've had - I defy anyone not to be impressed.

1. We manually cleared the site
2. Got the show garden rebuilt and tended to all the plants in pots whilst building took place
3. We replanted all of the show plants and even harvested the apples.
4. We assessed the remaining space and made plans
5. We cleared and levelled an area for raised beds which we assembled and installed in time for Easter
6. We sourced local willow from Abbotsbury Swannery, made new friends and planted Dorset's first living willow classroom and furnished it with logs donated by the Forestry Commission.
7. We bid for and got £10,000 lottery money and made more plans
8. The school community raised another £10,000

9. We bought and put up a shed

10. We researched, and planned and got quotes for a pond - then we got the pond built by Goddards Landscapes Ltd who did a first class job. (See Separate blog on Pond Building)
11. We were donated £2,000 from Holy Trinity Church for a memory garden
12. We researched, and planned and got quotes for the memory corner - then we got it designed and built by Roger Lanigan of Mayfield Rustics, who prodoced a lovely, unique, quiet area for us.

Well done to everyone who contributed!

Enjoy the fruits of our labours in these photos.....

The show garden

Still a mess but getting there

January snow (rare in Weymouth)

Raised bed area under way

Marking out the willow classroom

Willow entrance tunnel

Our new shed

Raised beds ready for use

Raised beds used

Memory corner started

Pond started

Introduction

Hello all,

My name is Samantha and I am starting this blog with the help of some friends and colleagues (hopefully) in order to share our experiences of starting up a school garden at our local primary school. We are a brand new school - just over 1 year old, created by the amalgamation of an infants and a juniors to create a primary school.

Holy Trinity Primary School in Weymouth, Dorset has just under 700 pupils and is indeed the largest primary school in the county.

At the end of the summer term in 2008, the school was contacted and made a once in a life time offer that we couldn't refuse. Dorset Cereals were offering us their edible playground garden, designed by Nick Williams-Ellis especially for the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2008. The garden formed part of the edible playgrounds initiative, a campaign to try and get an edible playground in all schools in the country. Initiated by Screen Bites in Dorset, this project has now been taken up by Dorset Cereals.

The garden had not yet been built but we were shown a pencil plan of it and we, of course, jumped at the chance. We had a perfect piece of land within our school grounds that would be ideal for this project and could be developed even further.

We said "yes please".

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