Crathes Primary School

This Pop Up Garden has a built in watering system made from reused plastic bottles and pieces of guttering.  There's a row of sweet peas, lettuce and nasturtiums in reused welly boots and lots of space for flowers to attract pollinators in the raised bed.  This garden was built by Ben Campbell (6) from Crathes Primary School in Aberdeenshire.

Building the watering system

Measuring wood for the planting box

Watering system in action

Ben used some off cuts of woods and some left over guttering and pipes that he found in the shed.  He had some help measuring and cutting the wood to the right sizes.  His neighbour had been using some local top soil in his garden and he had some left over so Ben brought it all to his garden site in a wheelbarrow.  Ben told us that this was one of his favourite parts of building the garden.

Cutting turf away from the garden site

Emptying the wheelbarrow

Ben wanted to be able to collect rainwater for his garden so he used some milk bottles and a juice bottle that were headed for the recycling. When the garden needs to be watered, Ben just lets the water out of the bottles and it goes down the pipes and waters the garden through holes in the guttering!

Ben used some old wellies that have holes in to grow some of his plants. He added some extra holes for drainage so the plants aren't flooded. He also gathered plants from the rest of the garden where they could be split from bigger plants, or moved around.  Ben asked his granny and a neighbour if they had any left over seeds so he could grow some. He grew sweet peas, lettuce and nasturtiums in his wellies as that's what they had left over.

He got his dad to help him assemble the pipes and used some willow branches to hold them up off a willow bush in the garden. This willow is now growing as well.  Ben enjoyed making his garden and watching it grow.  He likes to water it and watches for the water collecting after it has rained.

Drilling drainage holes in the wellies

Cutting wood with a little help from dad

Building the planter box

This Pop Up Garden is a Coast and Water Garden.  Water is part of our working and industrial heritage from the fishing fleet to the canal transport network, aquaducts, bridges, and the power generated by water mills and modern hydro-electric systems.  Water links the natural world to the heart of our cities.