Summerside Kindergarten

Pipe cleaner butterflies

Lavender

Painted garden base

Every garden has a story to tell about the people who helped make it, the challenges faced, solutions found, lessons learned and the unexpected pleasures along the way.  Here is Summerside Kindergarten's Pocket Garden Story in their own words.

The design of this pallet sized garden comes from our nursery school allotment where the
children cultivate many varieties of plants an learn about environmental issues.

The children love exploring wildlife that lives in and around the garden. This year, the children planted flowers for pollinators and are creating different habitats for biodiversity. We have made bird nesting boxes, a cosy bug hotel and installed a bat house in the Spring. Our planting will provide edible foods for us and the friendly creatures we share our allotment with.

In the allotment and in our pallet garden we hope to make a home for wildlife. The children grew the majority of plants from seed in the nursery allotment. After the show the plants will be transplanted into allotment beds. The structure is made of a reused pallet base and decorated driftwood house shaped frame anchored into the pallet to secure it.

The pallet is made into a box, lined and filled with soil. The plants have been planted directly into the soil. A few props made by the children have been added as well such as a compost heap inside a
woven willow box.

At our allotment, the children have been active sowing seeds for the pocket garden, observing
the different shapes, sizes, colour and texture of each type. As they cared for the growing seedlings, they noticed that a hungry snail had been nibbling on the leaves. We made a garlic 'tea' to spray on the leaves so they don't taste as nice.

We also decided to make a hedgehog shelter out of a recycled planter. This new home might entice the hedgehogs to stay and feast on unwanted bugs and so keep our plants healthy!

Arranging plants in the base

Adding compost

Finishing touches