New schools' garden with help of local lawyers

Local pupils of all ages will be able to get involved year-round with practical horticulture, learning to grow and care for vegetables, fruits, flowers and herbs. This exciting new resource will encourage young gardeners to experience the magic of sowing seeds, taking cuttings and propagating plants, right through to harvesting.

The Schools' Garden design has been inspired by the creative and sometime radical design ideas of children at the school partner in the project, St Paul's C of E Primary. It will use a wide variety of hard-landscaping elements and artworks including pergolas, sculptures, mosaics, tiling and paving, all set within wildlife-friendly long grass areas and established fruit and nut trees.

A series of raised beds will be created as well as a shallow pool, logpiles and birdboxes to encourage a diversity of wildlife to visit. Sustainable gardening practices including rainwater harvesting, solar-powered irrigation and composting will be adopted to show how gardening responsibly can help the environment.

Dr Judy Fox, Schools' Officer at the Botanic Garden, is spearheading the project: “I hope that the hands-on opportunities offered by the new Garden will encourage young gardeners to become passionate about their environment and, enjoy working outdoors with all the health and welfare benefits that come with it. It may even inspire the next generation of plant scientists and leading horticulturists.

“This year we are focusing on getting the bones of the Schools' Garden in place and running a trial growing season. We are very grateful to Mills & Reeve not only for their financial support but also for becoming actively involved in getting the project off the ground. We plan to open up the resource to all schools from September 2008.”

Around 15 staff of the Mills & Reeve Cambridge Office took part in the Make a Difference Day. They grubbed out shrubs, cleared hedges, pruned the overgrown fruit and nut trees, transplanted woodland plants to new homes, removed and stacked turfs to become top-dressing, started up the compost piles and, most importantly, dug over the soil.

Nick Finlayson-Brown, Partner at Mills & Reeve, is looking forward to getting his hands dirty: “Our office is next door to the Botanic Garden so we have a great attachment to what we think of as our 'back garden'. We are therefore delighted to be able to support this project and make a difference by providing some seed funding and labour. As lawyers we're trained to see the wood for the trees, so it will be interesting to put this to the test!”