Sustainable drainage at Knowle Park Primary

We are just about to start work on drainage and hard landscape design for a new play and allotment garden at Knowle Park Primary.  Last year we designed and obtained planning permission for the garden.  The ground has since been enclosed, slow worms excluded and the ground cleared.  We are now looking to drain the site into a series of planted rain gardens and a wildlife pond.  The photo of the model shows our intentions for the site.

Ash poles for school ground project

My colleague Shaun and I recently prepared about 50 ash poles for Knowle Park Primary school, where we have created a natural building area, complete with a robinia framed eey-ore shelter.  The ash poles came from Arnos Vale Cemetery, courtesy of Nick Bull the landscape manager and were selected to be big enough to form a frame shelter but also heavy enough to dissuade children from mis-using the poles.

We removed all the side branches and smoothed out any sharp edges.  Hopefully, the children will now be able to make their own dens using natural materials rather than plastic stuff. The photo below is the eey-ore shelter frame, made by Children's Playground Company, out of robinia wood.