Reckless Gardener - Schools Out – at the RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park 2006

RHS Tatton Park Flower Show 2006

Schools Out – at the RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park

Children learning new horticultural skills

It's not quite the summer holidays yet, but already children are enjoying the great outdoors as hundreds of pupils from schools across the region prepare for the RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park.

For some their trip to Tatton will give them the opportunity to see the end results of a project they have been working on. For others it will be the chance to see a garden that will become part of their school grounds. Such is the power of horticulture, that it has also been the catalyst to bring together two merging schools and make links between two schools on opposite sides of the world.

'Into Africa' was a project developed for Tatton, but that will have impact much further afield. It rediscovers the links between Lord Egerton, once the landowner of the Tatton estate, and his reserve in Kenya through the combined efforts of children from Egerton Primary School in Knutsford and children from Egerton School in Africa (now part of Egerton University). An educational exchange has seen the two schools celebrate the legacy of Lord Egerton, who in the nineteenth century grew vegetables at Tatton in order to produce seeds that he would take out to Africa for food production.

At Tatton an African school garden is being recreated using a Masai theme, expressed through shields, spears, an African hut and African wicker animals made by Knutsford school children. The planting will include traditional African staples such as maize and tomatoes.

In Salford, Radclyffe Community Primary School and St Clements Primary School are preparing to move to a new shared school in September 2007. One of the first ways of bringing the children together culturally has been driven through horticulture. Children from both schools have been working on a show garden, 'A Healthy Future', that is being built by the Northwest Regional Development Agency at Tatton and which will go on to form the central feature of the grounds at the new premises. Promoting healthy lifestyle and 'five a day' eating messages, the garden revisits a traditional walled kitchen garden to address issues such as sustainability and biodiversity.

Deirdre Walton, Principal Education Officer (Northern) for the Royal Horticultural Society, says, "One of the most important things that the RHS can do is nurture in young people an understanding and love for plants, gardening and the natural world, as it can bring so many benefits. It's very exciting to see so many children from across the North West region participating in the RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park, by getting their hands dirty, having fun and learning too!"

Reaseheath College in Cheshire has taken on the task of working with not one, but eleven schools! All of the plants for 'The Plot' have been raised by children from infant and junior schools in Cheshire, Shropshire and Staffordshire so that they could discover for themselves the origins of food and to encourage schools to create their own gardens. Carol Adams from Reaseheath explains, "We want to use our garden at the RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park as a platform to demonstrate what could potentially be achieved in primary schools across the country to promote the 'five a day' message and a more vocational approach to the national curriculum."

The plants in 'The Plot' show garden will be housed in the Growing Spaces dome, which is not unlike one of the Eden Project domes. Working off solar panels, reflected heat and insulation means that tropical fruits and plants can be nurtured within the dome. As an outdoor classroom, history, science, geography, design and technology can all be taught within this one garden.

For further details about the show and how you can purchase tickets online - please access here .....