Douglas Academy

Winner: 2017 Best Garden One Planet Picnic Theme

Instruments made into planters

Caledonia

Bagpipes and guitar

Every garden tells a story about the people who helped make it, the challenges faced, solutions found, lessons learned and the unexpected pleasures along the way. Here is Douglas Academy’s Pocket Garden story in their own words:

The Dougie Diggers started sowing seeds in February in our classroom propagator. We then pricked out and potted on our seedlings to bigger containers. We used coir pellets to sow some of our vegetables.

The music department donated old instruments for us to turn into planters. The Craft and Design Department helped us cut up the guitar to turn it into a planter.

Our design was influenced by our musical heritage and inspired by Douglas Academy being a specialist music school. We had a lovely sunny day painting our pallet and backboard outside in the school grounds. We are working towards having our own school garden which we plan to break ground on in the Autumn.

Mr Aldous helped us cut wood and put together the pallet and backboard. We grew cobaea scandens from seed in February for the music stands. Our guitar and bagpipe are filled with edibles and flowers we have grown from seed.

The accordion is filled with cerinthe and peas to attract wildlife and provide food.

Planning the garden

Plants growing well

Instruments reused