We talked about the insects and wildlife that make and engineer structures. Children were keen to talk about birds making nests as we learned about this when we took part in the RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch.  We looked at other types of nature engineers, the “spiders on our treehouse that made the giant web”. We wanted to make a special place for them all to live.

Practitioner Morag instantly thought about the connection to Scottish engineers and famous nature pioneers. Practitioner Christine researched if there were any famous engineers from Kilmarnock, as this was a historic engineering town. We found the site of Flowerbank Early Childhood sits on the historic Kilmarnock Academy School building where Alexander Fleming the pioneer of the discovery of penicillin went to school. 

We discovered a botanist named George Forrest also went to our school and lived in a house across the road. Many of the species of plants, trees, birds and animals that we know were brought to Scotland by him. We wondered if we could learn about our local history and incorporate some of the plants and flowers he discovered. We think this will make a personal link to the past and encourage some “nature engineers” of our own by providing the right habitats to our garden.

We hope that this unused part of the garden will be developed for regular use by the children and families to explore. And will be a mindful, relaxing space for staff, children and parents to sit and reflect and watch “natures engineers” busy at work.

We started with a blank canvas, a cable drum and a grassy area at the back of the nursery which was previously seldom accessed by the children. This is an area we wanted to improve for the children to access to further expand their knowledge and experience of sustainability and the growing seasons.

A Kilmarnock Willow tree was kindly donated to the nursery and we decided to use this as our centre piece to fit it inside the cable drum.

All our plants in the pocket garden design were grown from seed having been planted by our children from across all 3 playroom age groups. We planted seeds for plants to attract bees and butterflies in addition to the homes we have made for insects and spiders all of whom are natures’ engineers.

We recycled empty tubs to be used for planting some of our seeds.  We used scraps from our arts and crafts resources to make the spiders web which we hope real spiders will make their home in.
 
We put our Kilmarnock Willow tree into a larger tub and added fresh compost.

Our garden is starting to bloom. We have two yellow flowers and two pink flowers starting to grow. Our children will continue to nurture our plants as our staff continue to nurture the children under our care.

We have hogilows made from recycled upside down hanging flower baskets and an old wicker basket. We hope hedgehogs will keep warm in them.

Thank you to everyone who helped us with our Pocket Garden design, layout and growth.  It looks bloomin’ beautiful and we could not be more proud.