The Secret Nursery Garden

11/9/2023

Excitingly for the children this first week was the discovery of our new garden which runs down the side of our building. In reality the garden space has always been there however there were restrictions on using it. That all changed following a conversation with our landlord earlier this summer when he said something along the lines of, ‘Oh Fawzia if you would like to then you can.’ Hooray! Wonderfully he gave us carte blanche to do as we wished as his sea cadets no longer camped there - really they have not camped there for many years and the space has been overgrown with brambles and long grass, and also became a bit of a dumping ground for stuff to take to the dump but didn’t quite make it!

The move to action came a week into the summer holidays when Tim and I loaded his car up and finally made that overdue dump trip! I then enlisted a friend’s son, Tom, who was back from uni to do most of the graft with me (I had to take time out as I then managed our summer school for the last part of the holiday). Tom was great and cleared the brambles, cut back the very long grass and then took a mower to it.

It all finally took shape when we put the logs into place for an outdoor circle and Tim fixed a tarpaulin at one end. Then the children arrived! All our efforts were instantly and massively rewarded as they filled the space and properly brought it to life. One child exclaimed, ’this is the secret nursery garden!’ I smiled when she said that, ‘It actually is’ I replied. And it’s only the beginning - Im looking forward to lots of activity, outdoor learning and forest school activities. We have just had some wooden pallets arrive so the possibilities are enormous! Watch this space...

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