Swavesey Primary enhances biodiversity on its grounds....
....thanks to the generous support of 'The Sustainability Hub' (Swavesey) and 'Oakington Garden Centre'.
We have enhanced our concrete, pavement slabbed Reception outside area, with 4 additional new raised beds filled with peat-free compost and bee-friendly perennials, as well as, providing new wood, bark and plants for our gardening club's front and rear beds.
Funds for the raised beds and compost were provided by the 'Sustainability Hub' (Swavesey) in partnership with South Cambs County Council’s Community Chest grant as part of a village wide biodiversity project. Whilst the family run, Oakington Garden Centre, also kindly donated 300 litres of decorative bark, 15+ hardy perennials, 268 spring bulbs and plenty of seeds.
The Sustainability Hub is a great advocate for the school and our Eco committee work, and we are grateful for their additional support in helping us to further develop our outside spaces.
Oakington Garden Centre has also been a great support to us in this venture. They have all you need for locally grown plants and are presently opening up their Christmas shop of which the staff are so proud -we had a little peek when collecting our bark and bulbs -- it looks amazing. https://www.oakingtongardencentre.co.uk
"We feel very strongly about the importance of getting children into gardening", commented Patricia Sadler, who manages the horticultural aspects of the family run business.
A huge thank you also to Mrs Moroz for all her hard work in securing the support from both these organisations for this project, Mr Williamson for being our delivery driver and Mr Bidwell for constructing our beds.
.................."The children had a brilliant time helping to count out the number of bulbs and seeds we had been kindly donated. We made observations of the bulbs and seeds to compare them, talking about their surfaces, the size and shape. With the onions we talked about which way to plant them, making sure the roots were at the bottom. Each child took turns to plant some of them into our growing planter, before making signs to tell others that broad beans and onions were growing here. Others helped to water the bulbs and seeds. We are exciting to see them sprout!"
Zara Cotton, Reception teacher
Charlie, the Oakington Garden Centre's cat, inspected and approved
our compost quantity calculations.
and Katie Riley, plant manager, and the team were there to answer questions.