Our garden is called ‘Our Special Place’ as Dumfries House plays a significant part in our heritage here. It provides many happy memories for our children and families that visit there.  Some children were talking about how the king visits Dumfries House so they helped to create a king to watch over the garden.

Children used real tools and recycled materials to take part in ‘junior joinery’ creating our own wooden Dumfries House and bug hotel to be the centre of our garden.

We have noticed many different bugs and minibeasts visiting our flowers and bug hotel. We used recycled bottles to create a water wall to collect rain water to be used to look after the plants. The children helped to attach the bottles to the garden and attached the A Frame water feature to the bottom.  It was evident that children loved to use the real tools to create an end product.

There are tomatoes and strawberries growing in the picnic baskets as the children were asked what fruits or vegetables they like to have in a picnic.

We held a planting day where all children planted flowers, fruits and vegetables and learned all about how to look after our plants.  Part of our eco journey is to develop our front garden area to be a natural garden area for the children to explore. The pocket garden is a great start for this plan and it will remain within the front garden to develop and evolve.

Our favorite parts-

‘planting all the flowers for the bees and bugs’

‘using the drill and the saw to make the house’

‘the strawberries will grow’

‘we used bottles for the water to fall down’

‘the flowers’

The staff's favorite part was seeing the children so engaged in a different experiences such as using the tools and getting fully involved in planting and looking after the garden. This has encouraged children who do not engage in outdoor learning which is amazing to see. The pocket garden is now the start of our garden journey and has inspired staff and children to further develop the natural space.