Issue A Wimbledon Chase School Gardens Tony Cullen 2013 Wimbledon Chase Primary School is set in beautiful grounds and is privileged to have many excellent facilities including several garden areas and two large sports fields. The aim of the gardens is to promote education, fun, interest, sustainability, and to make it attractive to children, teachers, helpers, parents and wildlife. The school recognises that a garden project offers a resource and in doing so, provides a haven for flora and fauna. The school has entered London and Merton in Bloom 2013 competitions along with, the associated It s Your Neighborhood, Woodcote Green Best School Garden Successes over the last 12 months include: Best Olympic Display in the Daily Mirror Top of the Plots gardening competition the UK s Greatest Gardens. Four London in Bloom related awards, Sow Grow and Know Silver Gilt, It s Your Neighborhood - Level 3, winners of the Mad about Meadows Mini Meadows competition, inspired by London 2012 and a Certificate of Excellence. The school also achieved level 3 in the RHS Schools benchmarking scheme and were awarded the Alan Titchmarsh prize of 250, Woodcote Green Green Fingered Kids Highly Commended and winners of Merton in Bloom best Wildlife garden A new project this year has been the setting up of an allotment in the school grounds. The Allotments are named Bramble Hedge Allotments and registered with Capital Growth. This initiative also takes account of the RHS theme for 2013 - Edible Britain and Capital Growth s Big Dig. Apart from the children s involvement, the local community have also been actively involved in its preparation. Our Big Dig day in March was one of the days when members of the local community helped in preparing the ground, scaffold boards for the raised beds were donated by a local roofing business - Paul Strank, fruit trees donated by Waitrose (also to celebrate their 75 th anniversary), vegetable and flower seeds from Fothergill, Thompson & Morgan and Suttons Seeds. 1
Nature/Recycling: Sustainable gardening Recycling, New Allotment Bramble Hedge Allotments all the raised beds are made from 2 nd hand scaffold boards donated by a local Roofing Contractor. Composting, we have increased the number of compost bins. Wildlife area, leaves have been deposited there for over 2 years now. Some of this has been mixed with bought in material for all our planting. In exchange, the school has made a donation to support her associated tree warden scheme. Allotment perimeter hedge is made from willow provided by a Shepperton Bee Keeper. Rainwater capture, existing 1000 litre Intermediate Bulk Container (IBC) will be moved next to allotment shed. Outdoor Classroom Activities / Sessions Sowing and growing The school gardening club has continued during in school time and after school in spring and summer terms. Parents and teaching staff attend, we have about 4 adults regularly attending to support and assist with gardening activities including holiday maintenance. Weeding and tidying vegetable plots and planting native hedge plants, oak, beech and hazel donated by Trees for Schools. Class work Math s Measuring and noting down dimensions for the new allotment. Children also use marked up pieces of wood for seed sowing and tree planting 2
Diversity of plants grown: Willow Fedge Wildflower Seed Sowing Pumpkins, one was over 4 stone in weight Miniature Daffodils Tete Tete planted early 2013 Trees - planting a Mountain Ash Spring Bulb planting 3
It s your Community Community workdays open to the school community are held. These are arranged by the Friends of Wimbledon Chase Primary School. Tasks include painting, gardening, cleaning, litter picking etc. Tidying up front herbaceous border, weeding, pruning and planting up containers. In addition, over the last 6 months we have held two special working days The Big Dig Day and a Butterfly garden preparation morning. RHS campaign for schools, the school is registered at level 3, which includes community participation, such as the wider school community involvement in gardening activities and fundraising. Our plan is to go for level 4 this year if possible Local People have assisted in the building of our Willow Fedge and our allotment shed. Capital Growth provided a grant to part pay for our allotment shed and provided some fruit trees. Merton Abbey Horticultural society has made a small donation this year to help subsidise the purchase of our shed. We have also entered their Spring Show this year and plan to take part in their Summer Show in June 4
Paul Strank Roofing provided 18 scaffold boards for our allotment raised beds Waitrose have provided the school with several fruit trees and a vegetable seed sowing kit. Trees for Schools supplied several native trees for allotment perimeter hedge Metropolitan Public Gardens Association in collaboration with Taylors Bulbs provided over 1200 flowering bulbs. These were planted near the school entrance. This activity also appeared in the local press. Some great professional pictures taken and copies provided for family and friends. Sally Pembleton Fletcher (Shepperton Bee Keeper) supplied us with Willow to make our Fedge. This has been constructed around 3 sides of the allotment perimeter. Morrisons, The school collect the garden vouchers. We have already received some useful items of garden equipment, seeds and insect house. Planning for the future: Continue with developing the allotment area and use it for more school curriculum related activities, prepare a nature trail, and reinforce our partnerships with other schools. Seek new ways of fundraising, selling produce from the school gardens. Exhibiting in local flower shows. Activities 2012 2013: The school has prepared again this year two small wildflower beds, one for annual and the other with perennial wildflowers. We have a new butterfly garden using insect attracting perennial plants and wildflowers sown from seed. Future plans could include extending the areas for wildflower seed sowing. Birds, these are fed with seed at selected times during the year. Composting, the school recycles vegetation from the school gardens including grass cuttings from the site manager s garden. Leaves are stored in a special area, so they can break down naturally. We are also making our own fertiliser from the abundance of Comfrey plants found in the school grounds. If the latter proves successful, we could consider selling to the school community. Sharing knowledge, we were engaged last year with Poplar school, Morden (RHS level 5) to share ideas, best practice and if necessary the sharing of resources. We plan to continue this. RHS Twilight Training, Garden staffs have attended some of these training sessions, held at local schools Willow Structure making workshop, school covered the cost of attendance by one person. Other projects under consideration include the following: sensory garden, scent, feel etc., visit to Wisley Gardens, Bird Boxes - renovate those available and replace where necessary with new ones. Resources include the following: Three sheds, one in the school courtyard, 2nd near the wildlife garden area and one in allotment. Compost bins 6 off and compost area constructed from wood recovered from building site. IBC and Water butt 1 off each Tools - manual (forks, trowels etc), two wheelbarrows and a petrol motor driven strimmer. Garden accessories, such as pots, seed trays, fertilizers etc. 5
Our Wheelbarrow garden celebrating the London Underground 150 years. 6