Having studied Mini –Beasts as a science topic, P3 were keen to make their garden all about bugs. When they discussed engineering in nature (particularly insects) butterflies were the most popular choice, as the pupils were fascinated with metamorphosis.

They decided to divide their garden into 3 ‘zones’ one for each phase of a butterfly’s life cycle. They researched the types of plants that caterpillars and butterflies like and tried to include many of them in their design. They learned how caterpillars eat ferociously and decided to include lots of leafy plants in their garden for caterpillars to enjoy.

P3 liked getting their hands muddy when planting their flower seeds and then repotting their seedlings. They are delighted to see how everything has grown and changed.

They are an artistic class and enjoyed creating all of the ornaments and decorations for their garden. They demonstrated the lifecycle of a butterfly creatively by making beaded caterpillars, a paper mache chrysalis, recycled butterflies and even used flowers that were pressed last year to make a butterfly.

They hope everyone likes the colour that their creations have added to their garden. They love playing in the area near their garden and were delighted to see a bee and a butterfly enjoying the plants yesterday. By adding some glass stones to an old plastic plate P3 made a butterfly feeder, the butterflies and bees can land safely on the stones to have a rest and drink.

The most popular feature in the garden design was the Caterpillar Race track, pupils were very excited to make it from a donated bath tile and some paint pens. They were keen to place lettuce at the end of the track for the caterpillars to race towards and enjoy as a prize at the end of their race. Their hand made caterpillars make nice additions to the track.

They planted, sunflowers, nasturtium, marigolds, sweet peas, tomatoes and some herbs from seed. Pupils from every class in our school took it in turns to water and care for the seedlings and during the Easter holidays the plants were looked after by our good friend, Dr Sophie, at The University of Edinburgh. Pupils from P6 wrote to local garden stores and were lucky enough to receive some beautiful donations that were shared between all the classes.

So many elements of this year’s garden were reused, recycled or repurposed. All of the plant pots were donated. The pallets that the garden has been built on were from last year’s competition.  Pupils repurposed a pair of old tights, stuffed with earth and grass seeds to make hairy caterpillars. Old beads and pipe cleaners were used to make little caterpillars to hide around the garden. The tree stump, slates and bricks were used to add height to areas of the garden.

A variety of challenges were faced during the project, the apple tree that we planned to add to the garden sadly did not survive the winter. This was disappointing to pupils as they loved the tree and had imagined baby caterpillars munching on its leaves. A potted raspberry plant that was donated last year was added to the garden to take the place of the apple tree. The extreme wet weather had an impact on the garden, as a result some things just did not grow as quickly as hoped.

When the competition is over, the plan is to plant all of the annual plants that were donated into a newly created flower bed in our new Biodiversity Zone.