New garden at Chatsworth

No, no that Chatsworth, the famouse Derbyshire stately home.

Chatsworth Futures is a specialist college in Salford for 19-25 year olds who have profound learning disabilities and autism. They asked me to help them turn this unpromising patch of land into a garden so we'll be laying out raised beds, planting fruit trees, bushes and a herb bed.

Planting a forest

We've just finished planting 400 trees at Armitage on the school grounds. Children from Nursery to Y6 were involved. We're hoping that the trees will help to reduce air and noise pollution from the nearby main road as well as improving the view, providing a wildlife habitat and an area for children to explore.

Schools can get free trees from The Woodland Trust and it's a really simple matter to plant them: dig hole, put tree in hole. A great job for a sunny winter day.

Armitage insect houses

We made these fine looking insect houses at Armitage. Two Y6 boys did all the work, cutting the frames to size, filling them with different materials and then adding some wire mesh to hold everything in. It took a while but the results were worth it.