Dalbeattie Primary School
St Edward’s Coronation Crown
Our garden is designed to be a celebration of the Coronation of Charles III. We chose this as out theme because as a school, we wanted to commemorate the Coronation and link it to the King’s keen interest in the environment.
Colourful gemstones
Crowning glory
Purple velvet flowers
We have used recycled items such an old tractor tyre, unwanted log trim, recycled metal trim from an old window casing and recycled log sacks. We used recycled foil from Easter eggs to make the jewels.
To make our garden wildlife friendly, we have added many flowers: violas, petunias, nasturtiums and poached egg plant flowers. We have made sure we used peat free compost. It is hoped the flowers will attract minibeasts, particularly bees. No pesticides or fungicides will be used.
We have both chives and runner beans as the edible parts of our garden.
We have learned that not all things go according to plan. We had to problem solve easier ways to create safer jewels. We also had to have a re-think when our first crown top blew off in high winds.
When the competition is finished, we shall leave the garden in place for as long as it is blooming. Then we shall empty the contents and transfer which plants can be kept. The compost will be added tour playground planters and the tyre will be added to our outdoor nurture play area.
An interesting thing we would like to share is that our pocket garden was also showcased in our school’s Community Big Help Out Event. As part of the Coronation weekend, the school pupil council organised a quiz/map round the town to visit all the places where pupils’ own homes or gardens were decorated for the Coronation. At each location people were to gather a letter for an anagram. At the end of the trail, they were also to vote for their favourite place (winners are to be announced this week in school) and along the way, people were to do one good deed. It could be: picking up litter; donating an item to Dalbeattie Food bank; or donating a little extra money to Dalbeattie First Responders group or Kippford RNLI. The event was in keeping with the May 8th focus on volunteering. The garden then featured in our photograph of the school pupil council presenting their donated food items to the organizer of the local Dalbeattie Food Bank.
We were also pleased that two local businesses supported the costs of constructing our garden (Dalbeattie Spar and Dalbeattie Garden Centre.)
Garden Design
Creating the garden – from design to reality
Foodbank presentation
