Garden advice needed!!

[ellwalthamstow]

Hi all, I work at a primary school in East London. We are in a very built up area with a small amount of grass in our playground. I'm really keen to turn this area into some sort of sensory garden with lots of planters and different opportunities for the children to learn gardening skills. A lot of our children live in homes without gardens and I feel they should all have access to some sort of outdoor retreat. I have a rough idea on a plan, but not sure where to start in terms of volunteer help or where to source materials for cheap!! I have emailed a couple of colleges that offer landscaping/horticultural courses to see if they have any students who would be interested in getting the opportunity for one of their designs to come to life. I don't have a lot of money to do this, but I really want to make something special. Any ideas/suggestions on anything to do with volunteers or resources would be amazing! TIA!!! Xxxx

A state primary near us had exactly this sort of thing done. Deutsche Bank gave workers and, I think, money, as some kind of community outreach thing. Maybe worth ringing round? Though I believe most banks aren't aren't rolling in spare cash at the moment.

You could try Tesco the ones near us have 3 "special causes" a month and have boxes for each of them at the store entrance and basically customers put blue tokens in them and at the end of the month they each get an amount based on the amount of tokens in their box! My daughters primary did it recently and got £2000 (I think) from it! Her school also gets parents to volunteer to help with the garden.

Thank you so much! It's super overwhelming at the start but know it will be so worth it. Will definitely look at the banks and Tesco! Looking at advertising for volunteers. Will probably be back for more help very soon!

Tesco and waitrose offer funding if they trade nearby. If you have a rubbish or recycling plant in the vicinity they may offer funding for environmental projects. Also worth approaching local garden centres for donations of plants or materials.

www.groundwork.org.uk/Sites/tescocommunityscheme
Don't forget Lottery funding.

Agree with PP who mentioned Deutsche Bank, large companies often have social responsibility schemes and even if won’t give money, will give staff volunteers for a day or an afternoon. See if you can get a request in the newsletter to ask any parents who work for a company who offers such a scheme to get in touch. Such companies may also offer matched funding for employees if there’s fundraising to be done.

You can use recycled things too, try local gutter for free old tyres, you can stack them and plant potatoes in there.

You can make a water fall wall using empty coke bottles

www.designrulz.com/design/2015/01/diy-40-ideas-gardening-recycled-items/

www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/53409945553392362/

urbangreensurvival.blogspot.co.uk/p/hanging-bottle-garden.html

Gutter should read gumtree

Get in touch with the National Citizenship Service in your area. They are usually on the look out for community projects which 16-18 year olds can get involved in for 1-2 weeks in the summer holidays.

Honestly thank you so much everyone. I never knew there were so many options!! Xx

Ask parents to be involved (and older kids). Talk to local businesses (even the closest B and Q). NCS. Community groups. Local allotment groups. Local Churches etc.

At my DCs school they pulled up bits of the playground to make larger beds.
I would also suggest growing some food plants, which the kids can be involved and learn a lot from.

If you have a local B&Q they donate unsellable stuff to projects. I got paint and wallpaper from them for a playgroup but I’m sure they’ll have split bags of compost, perennials looking a bit worse for wear etc.
www.diy.com/corporate/community/waste-donation/

Our infant department sensory garden had some plants given by a local garden centre in return for a few discrete thank you signs in the planting as it was in an area parents waited at pick up.

Where we are we also have a local wood reuse project and a scrap store (recycled materials). You might have something similar as a cheap or free source for materials.

Good luck 😊

Lots of information and advice from the RHS here:

schoolgardening.rhs.org.uk/Resources/Find-a-resource?so=0&pi=0&ps=10&f=&page=1

Years ago I worked on a project like this as a trainee at a city law firm - other professional services firms are worth a try!