Nature features

Harefield Primary

Harefield Primary School in Southampton held an outdoor fun week to mark the opening of the school’s Big Lottery-funded Breathing Places environmental area.

The Harefield Arch

All the children took part in pond dipping, bark rubbings, observational drawings and completing animal fact sheets.

The School had received a Phase 2 BBC Breathing Places/Big Lottery grant which paid for tree surgeons who made the area safe before a woodchip path was laid through the site. 

A pond was cleared, a willow tunnel was constructed, litter was picked and, finally, a wild flower meadow and hawthorn hedges were planted.

The children helped with most of these projects and the school’s Eco Club also made hedgehog, bird and bat boxes and a bird feeding station.

 As teacher Helen Heal explained: "Our children will now be able to experience awe and wonder in our woodland environment and further develop their sensory and environmental knowledge".

The Rainbow Centre

The Rainbow Centre in Fareham specialises in Conductive Education working with children with motor disorders like cerebral palsy.  They celebrated the start of spring with a garden open day and planted 300 camomile plants in their new Breathing Places Play Away WILD Garden.

Sarah Wheeldon

The garden was designed by Sarah Wheeldon and was officially opened during National Tree Week 2007.  The garden was the result of a lot of fund raising activity, including a successful bid for a Big Lottery grant.

Situated next to the main Centre building, the garden allows children and adults with disabilities to see wildlife in its natural habitat, raising awareness about nature conservation.

As well as the planting of the camomile plants, the open day also saw the putting up of a bat box, a bird box incorporating a webcam and log piles to provide shelter for insects, lizards and slow worms.

Children from local primary schools, employees from the local branch of Barclays Bank and staff from Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust all helped with this final phase of the garden project

Helen Somerset-How, the Centre’s Development Director and Co-Founder said "It meant we could turn a very ugly piece of land into something that the community can be proud of and enjoy for many years to come".

The WILD garden is cared for by volunteers although the Centre is looking for more local supporters with green fingers to help maintain this new Breathing Place.  

Daisy Dip

Daisy Dip in the Bassett Green area of northern Southampton was the centre of attention last November as it hosted Southampton's Tree Party - part of the City Council’s Breathing Places City Year of Action.

Making bird feeders

Local residents and community service teams brought along by the Probation Service planted hawthorn whips while children enjoyed making bird feeders out of apples and sunflower seeds.

The volunteers planted 100 hawthorn saplings which will flower in the spring to attract insects and provide berries for blackbirds to eat in the autumn.

Caroline Inglis from the RSPB said: "It's a great way for the community to get together to plant trees and its good for wildlife - it's good for everyone to volunteer."

Partner organisations including the RSPB recruited new supporters while Groundwork Solent won new members of  a new Daisy Dip Friends Group to continue the good work already started. 

Tree week

Meanwhile thousands of trees were planted as part of BBC Breathing Places and National Tree Week 2007.

Portway Junior School in Andover held a massive tree planting session in the school grounds - over two days pupils will plant around 1,300 trees.

November also saw the grand opening of Phase 1 of the school’s ambitious plans – the official opening of a Wallace & Gromit Vegetable Garden.

Planting the Rememberance Day meadow

Much of the design of the garden has been undertaken by the 650 children themselves.  Working on the designs in the art classes, the final plan is based around the Wallace & Gromit characters.

There was also a Remembrance Day meadow of poppies which has been jointly put together with the local Royal British Legion.

The project was masterminded by teacher Wendy Jones - herself a keen gardener - with help from her colleagues and the local community with the kids raising all the money necessary to fund the project.