Teaching Garden

The outdoor Teaching Garden, where both children and adults will be able to learn, has been designed by Cleve West.

Cleve has worked closely with the RHS Education Department to ensure the Teaching Garden, an outdoor classroom, works as a curriculum resource for teachers and children. The Teaching Garden is a relatively small space of 500 sq m (600 sq yd).

‘I was given a free hand. The RHS weren’t that specific about what had to be put into the garden. I’ve kept it understated - I did not want to go down the 'Disney' route. Children need to look and discover for themselves,’ says Cleve who has spent years watching children playing on his allotment.

‘Some children suffer from information overload with lots of buttons to push and too many information boards, which take the fun out of exploration. I’ve watched my partner’s grandchildren playing on my allotment and I’ve seen how they like to observe and discover for themselves.’

His rectangular garden focuses on a hexagonal hub enclosed by hornbeam hedging and wooden seats for 30 children. This is where children gather to be briefed by teachers before dividing into groups of six to look round the garden and get their hands dirty.

A large section is given over to vegetable beds where crops will be sown and harvested by children; there’s a shed with an undulating sedum roof; a perennial area; a woodland area, some mini wood stacks for wildlife and a 5 x 5m (17 x 17ft) pond where children can find out more about insect life. Compost bins to one side of the garden are fitted with industrial rubber gloves through which children can feel the heat of the compost.

Every element of the hard and soft landscaping is designed to be inspirational, educational and fun. A 15m (50ft) whispering tube, concealed in the earth boundary wall, gives children a chance to whisper to each other from one end of the garden without being overheard. It’s an original feature. Even the earth wall is innovative; it’s made from spoil from the lake.

‘Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough clay in the soil, so we had to add a little concrete to stabilise the wall. We rammed earth into a timber form (frame) by hand, 20cm (8in) at a time and then added a little cement.’ Cleve hopes that, in the long term, the wall will weather and gather mosses and other plants.

Planned planting aims to include the widest variety of plant types, colours and textures to give children a flavour of the plant kingdom’s diversity. What follows is a taster of the hundreds of plants in the garden: waterlily Nymphaea 'Virginia'; ferns like Dryopteris felix-mas; perennials from alchemilla to violets; grasses like Molinia caerulea subsp. arundinacea 'Zuneigung'; shrubs such as Phlomis and Yucca flaccida; a host of herbs such as rosemary; aquatics like water mint (Mentha aquatica) and trees including weeping birch (Betula pendula) and Amelanchier lamarckii.

Cleve says, ‘This is a place where children can be in a real garden while teachers can use it for a whole range of lessons. It’s not just about botany and horticulture - plants can be used to inspire writing, poetry and art and to learn about science. It’s up to teachers as well as children to use their imagination to adapt the garden to fit their needs.’

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