Teaching Garden

AL NATURAL -

LANDSCAPE SOLUTIONS

London, 2015

The Teaching Garden Summary of project

Contents Summary Objectives

1 1-2

Personal Background

2

Schedule

3

To transform an ugly forgotten area of a London primary school into a beautiful and productive sustainable educational resource.

The teaching garden is a real-life laboratory for students to learn about nutrition, sustainability, science, maths, languages, arts, design, life skills and ethical values such as tolerance, patience and environmental awareness. We plan to work with primary school children in different areas:

 Design and create veg-

Key learning points:

etable growing raised beds using different methods of organic pest control, enabling both growing and scientific experiments to be held.

We plan to use a mod-

ern modular and easy-to-use wooden block system similar to Lego to involve children and develop their building skills.

 Bring back to life an unused area surroundAll activities will support the school ing an existing curriculum. small orchard (4 trees) by that includes a rain garcreating a wildflower den, green roof, bug meadow, testing out hotels, bird houses and different methods and different plants in beds. mixes of wildflowers to These resources will supcreate a natural biologport many areas of the priical study area. mary school curriculum,  Create an ecological while improving the enviand sustainable garden ronment for children and in a small outdoor quiet flora and fauna alike. study and reading area to encourage wildlife

 Vegetable growing  Environmental awareness  Ethical values

Objectives of project

 Life skills  Arts  Languages  Maths  Science

We plan to work with a selected group of children in after school class sessions, teaching them as we design, build and plant up. Not only are we hoping to encourage their

horticultural skills, but also engage them in the engineering and science behind the processes.

This project will benefit our partnership by provid-

ing our first commercial project together. It encompasses many of our strongest inspirations and ideas in garden design, those of teaching children, growing organically and

Pag 2

reusing materials in a natural design.

It will be a fantastic building block for our partnership and for the school itself, having a much needed outdoor education area where horticulture, science, and fun can coincide. It will hopefully be a starting point for budding future horticulturalists, many of whom live in flats with no outside space and little knowledge of plants and where food comes from.

The Teaching Garden

the space on holidays and the weekends. It also will lead to the implementation of new study areas such as permaculture, languages (Spanish, French, etc.), ethics and society by creating study groups or after school clubs.

A teaching garden is a real-life learning laboratory where students interact with nature

A further benefit from this project would be the opportunity for the wider community to enjoy

Student-nature interaction

Personal Background The project is a partnership between Linette Eva and Alejandra Perez. We are both current students at Capel Manor College, studying the Level 3 Diploma in Garden Design.

Linette studied geology (BSc) and environmental rehabilitation in Australia before moving to the UK and owning her first garden here, sparking the gardening bug. She currently works with the primary school the project is based around as a volunteer gardener and also volunteers with the London Chil-

dren’s Flower Society and Open Garden Squares.

We share a passion for gardens and children

Alejandra has graduated in Colombia with a bachelor degree in Agriculture and Industry Engineering (2:1). She is passionate about sustainable landscapes, environmental awareness and teaching Spanish. She also volunteers for the Open Garden Squares and has recently attended to the RHS show garden seminar, 2014.

Pag 3

Schedule The project is being designed to be completed within 6 months. Time may vary according to activities planned by the working team and school requirements.

Nurturing patience

General Activities Phase 0: Preparation Design plan Planting plan Agreement with staff Agreement with suppliers and contractors Join school gardening campaigns Phase 1: Building Clearing site, waste disposal Natural mulching for weed suppressing Marking out design Preparing soil Hard landscaping construction Instalation of final components Phase 2: Planting Herbaceous plants Small trees Meadow, Groundcovers Phase 3: Implementation Garden sculpture and art exhibitions After school club garden ideas Others Extra activities

Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4 Month 5 Month 6