Garrowhill Primary School

The Tale of Red the Redwing

Our garden tells the story The Tale of Red the Redwing, written by one of our pupils and based on Beatrix Potter stories. Our garden includes lots of habitats for wildlife and many tasty things to eat. 

Story characters come to life

Cosy hedgehog home

Repurposed irrigation system

Our topic this term is the Victorians and after reading some Beatrix Potter stories, we decided to write stories about the wildlife in our school grounds and our garden. Together we decided to base our pocket garden on one of the stories Steven in our class had written about a Redwing which cannot fly. Several of the animals in our school grounds were included in the story which was illustrated by many different pupils in the class. The whole class contributed ideas and illustrations.

We chose bee and insect friendly plants such as lavender and sweet violet. We created a bug hotel and used old tubs for a bird bath and a hedgehog feeder. We included a hedgehog house and bird boxes. We used old plastic pots to make bird feeder. The edible plants in the garden are lettuce, carrots, potatoes, peas, beetroot, broad beans, strawberries, sweet violet for cake toppings, nasturtiums, borage, rosemary, sage, thyme, mint and chives. We used old pallets from our school grounds, yoghurt pots, soil leftover from our nearby nursery, offcuts of wood, plastic water bottles, an old hose, stones, leaves and twigs from the school grounds, an old blue liner, old crates for the hedgehog house and signs.

We have seen how to reuse in practice and we can work as a team. We have learned how to grow plants from seed and look after them. They need sunlight, water (not too much!) and nutrients from the soil. We learned that plants grow at different rates and that some plants require support if they are climbers.

We have had lots of support from our local community to create our garden. A dad and granddad came in to help us build the frame and hedgehog house, the local nursery donated soil and City Building College made our bird houses for us to put together.

We will keep taking care of our garden; we will harvest the fruit and vegetables to use in our cook school. Many pupils helped us with growing plants and building the bug hotel. We will teach all the other pupils in our school how to create a garden. We would like to use the rest of our pallets to create a garden for each stage so that they can grow food and help our school wildlife.

Garden Design

Creating the garden - from design to reality