Budding gardeners at Barton Seagrave Primary School in Northants will be able to grow their love for the outdoors in a dedicated space created with help from Redrow and its landscapers.
The school’s previous wildlife garden was built over to make way for an extension to provide additional facilities for the 480-plus children. Teacher Kim Pack was keen to develop a new garden and form a gardening club, but with no budget for tools, seeds or plants appealed to the local community for assistance.
Among those who stepped in to support the project were Redrow Homes and landscape gardeners TCL Group. Between them they installed new fences – including fencing made from pallets donated by B&M Pallets – and rotavated part of the area so that the children could carry out planting.
Kim Pack said: “We wanted to create a new garden area where the children could do some gardening and enjoy being outside, as well as having somewhere quiet they could sit. One of the issues we needed to overcome was keeping the area separate from the playground and stopping balls and the like from damaging the flowers, but we didn’t have a budget available for fencing.
“The support from Redrow and TCL has made a huge difference. The children can look over or through the fencing and we’ll be planting up the pallets that have been used for some of the fence to add an extra splash of colour. We’re really grateful to Redrow, TCL and everyone else in the community who’s helped. We’re a community school and it’s great to see the community coming together. We’re looking forward to making a good start on the garden in September.”
The project will develop gradually and will include themed areas such as a herb garden and wildflowers planted on banks.
The Ready Set Grow Club will tend to the garden every Friday.
Tonia Tyler, sales director for Redrow Homes (South Midlands), said: “Barton Primary School is close to our River View and Castle Fields developments and as good neighbours we were happy to be able to assist with preparing their new garden. Hopefully it will help the children develop a love for the outdoors.”
Carl Maddocks, operations manager at TCL Group, added: “It’s great to see a school encouraging children to take an interest in the environment at an early age. Who knows, those who are members of Ready Set Grow could be the landscape gardeners of the future.”
River View and Castle Fields at Barton Park, Barton Seagrave, have both blossomed into thriving new neighbourhoods and feature acres of public open space of their own and 27 allotments. Show homes are open daily, but for more information see www.redrow.co.uk/river or www.redrow.co.uk/castlefields.
