MULBERRY GOES BACK TO SCHOOL TO PLANT SOME NEW IDEAS
Pupils at Woodcote Primary School have developed green fingers after a visit from two members of Mulberry, the landscape care and maintenance specialist. Lynn Rees and Sarah Taylor spent an afternoon helping 22 six and seven year olds from the school’s ‘Hornbeam’ class, along with their teacher, Mrs Sandra Farmer.
Mulberry has been visiting Woodcote Primary twice a year since Christmas 2006. Sarah used to work there, and her children are still pupils at the school. Last summer, the company gave the children a practical lesson based around tomatoes and sweet peas. This year, the afternoon focussed mainly on herbs.
Lynn Rees explains: “The children have a ‘secret garden’ that is accessible only to the Hornbeam class. We divided them into pairs and gave each pair a pot of herbs, such as chives, mint, parsley, dill or thyme. They each then dug a hole and planted the herb, along with its name tag. Following this, the pupils sat around tables in groups of five or six and planted parsley seeds in pots of compost. They were allowed to take their own pots home, and also planted some for the classroom.
“The highlight of the afternoon for most of the children was a tie-dying session. Sarah gave each of them a white T-shirt and mixed up three natural dyes – a beetroot red, an onion skin brown and a nettle green. The pupils tied two stones in their T-shirts and then dipped them in the two dyes they had each chosen. The shirts were left to dry on a washing line across the play area so that they could take them home later.”
The children’s teacher, Mrs Farmer, also gave them a short lesson on how to look after their plants, and explained how they needed light and water to be able to grow. Lynn concludes: “We love going to the school, and it’s great for Mulberry to be able to give something back to the community. Mind you, we probably enjoy it just as much as the children!”
