Interesting Solutions for Poorly Draining Sites.

Without wishing to sound like a broken record! Our site has been struggling to cope with the recent downpours. Due to continued urbanisation of many green areas, finding innovative solutions to drainage is becoming a hot topic of discussion.

One solution is to turn a negative into a positive by creative channeling of rainwater. We have all no doubt heard of the benefits of collecting rainwater via guttering and water butts, but what about the play opportunities associated with rainwater?

One of the leading voices in innovative play landscapes is Norweigan playground designer Frode Svane. His vision for rainwater play has been incorporated into a guide produced by Planet Earth Ltd. for London Play in association with Natural England.

http://www.londonplay.org.uk/file/1524.pdf

Below are a few extracts from the guide:

'New requirements to install sustainable drainage systems have been introduced following recent catastrophic flooding events in lower river valleys. We [London Play] want rainfall to stay in the local area and sink into the ground, not be whisked away to flood somewhere downstream, but we also want to make rainfall fun for children to play with.

The guidance has been produced with funding assistance from Natural England, and written by Planet Earth Landscape Architects, with advice from Bob Bray Associates and photos from both of them and from Norwegian playground designer Frode Svane.'
Case Studies


Fort Royal School, Worcester




This is a special school with many different needs. Runoff from the upper car park 
is cleaned through a permeable pavement and released through a rain chain. 
Open rills carry water through a small courtyard and sett channels take water to 
the school green space. A formal pond with a glass window allows pupils to look 
into the pond safely. A habitat pond will allow pond dipping and act as a home for 
wildlife with balance beams over water and access to moving water provide 
further understanding of what happens when it rains.



Planet Earth Ltd, St Mary’s Frobisher Park, Peckham, London

 

Planet Earth have been transforming this declining pocket park into a playful,

magical semi- wooded landscape. Lush woodland planting surrounds a colourful

river channel. The river source starts at the ‘rocky mountain area’ a high point at

the back of the site and flows down along the natural levels into a reedbed in the

river ‘delta’ area. In heavy rainfall children will be able to enjoy chasing rainwater

running along the river channel and through the site. The reedbed has been given

an extra safety precaution to satisfy the local council’s peace of mind using steel

mesh hidden beneath the reeds that is bolted to the surrounding concrete.

Planet Earth Ltd, Argyle School, Camden, London

At Argyle School, Planet Earth designed a ceramic surface water-system that
collected rain water from roofs. Using a hand pump, the children could pump
water into the channels and watch it collect in their very own pond with frogs and
water plants.

Unseasonably wet!

Well the rain just keeps on coming! Here is a snap I took of our bog garden today.
The marsh loving plants are quite happy to spend a day or too with their roots sloshing about in this muddy soup! However it is making it rather difficult to get on with any of our other gardening tasks.

Luckily, we had a break in the weather earlier in the week which gave us the chance to get a few jobs done. Farhan and Rehan helped me to add some coleus to our black Olympic ring and to clean the black grass with milk. We also managed to plant some ferns in the bog garden which had been donated by Mrs. Parfitt. The Year 4 gardeners weeded and watered the vegetable beds, mulched the fruit trees and added an astilbe, a hemerocallis 'corky' and a primula bullesiana to the bog garden.

In the next few weeks (weather permitting) we are hoping to have new wooden edging fitted to the butterfly garden borders and some new composting stations installed. We will also be rotovating and enriching all the planting areas to prepare the soil for the next phase of planting.

Bradford Schools Flower and Vegetable Show 2012

On Monday, an interesting looking parcel arrived for me at the school office. It was our welcome pack for the Bradford Schools Flower and Vegetable Show. Inside were a selection of Spear & Jackson hand tools, a planting calendar and some vegetable seeds. This is the third time the event has been held and the first time that Fagley Primary will exhibiting.

The show is due to be held on September 7th 2012 at Cottingley Village Primary School and schools from all over Bradford will be attending. We have been invited to take one child from each year group to represent our school. This will be a fantastic opportunity for our Garden Team to meet fellow growers and share our experiences.

The categories we can choose to enter our produce under are:

• Best basket of vegetables 
• Best group of potatoes 
• Best potted plant 
• Best flower arrangement 
• longest runner bean 
• Best garden in a seed tray 
• Best vegetable in show 
• Strangest and wackiest vegetable 
• Best fruit and vegetable collage/picture 

They are also running a competition to design a logo for the annual event.




The Garden Team will meet over the next few weeks to decide which categories we should enter.

Our School Grounds

Make your own photo slideshow at Animoto.

Funding for Garden Projects

We have recently applied for a grant from the Arla 'kids closer to nature' scheme, which if successful, will enable us to begin work on a wildflower garden.

Setting up and maintaining a school gardening programme can be a costly business, but the benefits to the children taking part are priceless. Over the years we have been able to build up a good bank of tools and equipment through Morrison's Let's Grow Scheme http://www.morrisons.co.uk/letsgrow/ . We have also benefited from the Woodland Trust's scheme to supply schools with saplings and hedgerow plants http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/en/jubilee-woods/what-you-can-do/schools/free-schools-packs/Pages/school-tree-packs.aspx#.T9jNX7XY_9A .

The RHS Campaign for School Gardening website has a comprehensive list of funding contacts to explore. http://apps.rhs.org.uk/schoolgardening/teachershome/resources/findingfunding.aspa

Our priority at Fagley Primary over the next 12 months are to put systems in place to enable us to produce our own compost and to address the issue of the condition of our soil. This will mean taking steps to remove stubborn weeds and by rotovating and introducing soil improver into areas where we wish to plant to encourage healthy growth. Although this is not the most glamorous side of gardening, it is vital to ensure the long term success of planting projects.

Sensory Garden Training Course

Frog Pond

Bug Hotel

Today, I attended a sensory garden training day in the breathtaking gardens of Ellicar House owned and maintained by Sarah Murch. http://www.ngs.org.uk/gardens/gardenfinder/garden.aspx?id=22803

Spooky Garden

Natural Swimming Pool

Her garden is a veritable feast for the senses with botanical delights packed into every inch of the grounds. The natural swimming pool was absolutely astounding (though not something we could possibly hope to replicate in school!) There are many other aspects of the garden that we could adapt to areas of the grounds.

Sarah gave us a tour of the gardens and explained how the different plants stimulate the senses and how different plants can be grouped by colour, sound,smell and structure to create various atmospheres such as vibrant, ethereal, spooky or calming.

She explained how to group plants starting with a tree, then structural shrubs, evergreen shrubs, perennials and bulbs.

Euphorbia Underplanting 

One of the most important things I learnt was the importance of improving the soil structure before even considering planting anything. We face a number of challenges relating to this in our school grounds. Our soil is heavy clay over a sandstone bedrock which makes it quite heavy to work with and slow to drain. To make matters worse, much of the soil is seriously compacted due to the need for vehicular access during building works and general heavy use of the grounds. When the soil is compacted it lacks air meaning the water will not drain through it easily and plant roots struggle make their way through the dense matter.

Sarah suggested that attempting to improve the soil structure of entire areas would be costly and time consuming so to concentrate on improving the the soil structure of areas directly around planting sites. (by digging over thoroughly, breaking up the heavy clay and rock with a metal bar if necessary and mixing in plenty of soil improver).
She also emphasised the importance of choosing plants suitable to our soil type and lighting conditions.
She provided me with a list of plants suited to clay soil that would provide year round interest.
We learnt about the importance of having a long term plan for our site which incorporates a wish list of everything we would like to achieve in the grounds and what is required to achieve it. This will enable us to break jobs down into tasks that can be tackled as funding becomes available.
Myself and the gardening team will look at how we can implement these ideas.

Storage Disguised as Beehive

Bee Hotel

Geum Mrs. Bradshaw

Mini Pond

Spooky Garden Entrance

Herb Towers

In the Spooky Garden

Growing for Gold update

Our alyssum plants are finally flowering, so today it was time to add them to our fabulous Olympic bed.
It will take a few weeks for the alyssum to spread out and give the full effect but I think the Olympic Bed is already looking really good. What do you think?