Members of the HVA team were delighted to join Enjoycation for the opening of their courtyard Learning Garden.

Many people helped get the courtyard to its finished (but still evolving!) state, including Balfour Beatty who cleared undergrowth and made the back wall stable, HVA’s Community Nature Connections who supported with a grant, donors via JustGiving, and many people carrying gravel, painting walls, building furniture, lugging compost and making artwork… including HVA staff and Enjoycation parents, staff and students.

We are so pleased that these collaborative efforts have enabled us to bring this abandoned space back into use.

Jackson Hall Learning Garden: some information

The garden is intended as a learning space, for growing plants, learning about ecosystems and sustainability, helping pollinators… but is also a relaxing and calm outside area for all users of Jackson Hall.

The pond is planted with native species that will attract pollinators. They include Hornwort, Marsh Marigold, Cotton Grass, Slender Club Rush and Water Forget-Me-Not.

The courtyard will have a number of different watering places for insects and other minibeasts to drink safely, as well as an insect “hotel” for overwintering. There are plans to make a small log pile for little creatures to inhabit.

The acer was bought with a very kind donation from Rye Quaker Meeting.

The wall-mounted mosaic circles use recycled CDs and were used to explore mathematical ideas of symmetry in their design.

The “peace pole” was designed and painted by four of Enjoycation’s groups of children aged 4-14. Each group had one side of the pole and chose a type of “minibeast” to portray on it. It will be turned periodically to display each of the beautiful sides.

The largest of the raised beds has been left mostly empty, for the children to plant next year with lots of different crops. The youngest pupil group (4-8-year-olds) already planted sunflower seeds and watched them germinate, before taking them home to plant in their own gardens.

There is an enclosed courtyard space at Jackson Hall that was out of bounds for many years, as it featured bricks with crumbling mortar, and a wall at risk of collapse.

In line with their corporate social responsibility commitments, a team from Balfour Beatty visited the Jackson Hall site to clear the overgrowth and repair the walls.

Since then, an alternative education provider that operates from Jackson Hall, Enjoycation, have brought the space back into use, and are turning it into a learning garden!

Team HVA are supporting the project as part of their staff volunteering hours, including painting the walls and carrying bucket after bucket of gravel into the space.

There is more work to come, but we are so pleased that these collaborative efforts have enabled us to bring the abandoned space back into use.

If you’d like to make a donation towards the Learning Garden, you can do so here.