Auchinairn Early Years Centre

The children at Auchinairn Early Years Centre have been working hard on our garden. They came up with the basic design and have been involved in every stage of its construction. They helped dismantle old pallets, pull out nails, reuse the nails and saw wood. They have hammered in nails, drilled holes and put in screws with an impact driver. The painting was a team effort using stencils and they helped plant and repot the plants.  

Starting construction

Planting

Everything in our garden has been reused except for the peat free compost which was donated by parents. We used 3 old pallets for the timber and a compost bag to line the growing area. The sides are 20 repurposed milk bottles which keep the compost in and house our strawberry plants.  
 
At the rear, we have another 14 milk bottles which catch rainwater. The water flows through old silicone tubing into a small reservoir made with offcut pond liner. From there it moves through recycled capillary matting to the growing area.  
 
We are growing strawberries which are starting to produce fruit and which have edible flowers. We also have sunflowers which produce edible buds, petals and seeds. Our violas and dahlias also have edible petals. To complete our salad we have some lettuce plants.