June 5, 2014 4.00 pm This story is over 117 months old

Lincoln school children design community garden

Green fingered pupils: Lincoln design, print and marketing firm Ruddocks has launched a new garden and outdoor function space with the help of four local schools.

Lincoln design firm Ruddocks launched a new garden and outdoor function space with the help of four local schools.

The garden is based at the company’s premises at Great Northern Terrace, and was designed with the help of 21 pupils from Manor Leas Junior Academy, Fosse Way Academy, All Saints C of E Primary and Ling Moor Academy.

All 21 children were invited to a special launch event on June 5 to see their designs in real life and get some hands-on gardening experience.

The chosen pupils took part in activities such as pond making, creating a bug hotel, planting seeds and painting pots and creating bird feeders.

Once finished, the garden will be maintained by the staff at Ruddocks, which also gives them access to fruit and vegetables as well as an area to hold meetings and have lunch.

They will also be donating any excess produce to local charities such as Lincolnshire Food Larder.

Verity Stephenson, Project Manager at Ruddocks, said: “We had overgrown land that was being wasted and we thought it would be great to work with local schools to help shape something practical that would be around for years to come, benefiting our staff and encouraging wildlife.

“The response from the pupils was fantastic, in total we had over 250 designs submitted and the quality was so good that we took elements from 21 ideas to form one ultimate garden.”

Ruddocks also thanked Doddington Hall, Turnbulls, Diane Easton, Sinclair’s, Stumpbusters and many more who donated time and resources to the garden.

Mary Brown, a Teacher at Manor Leas Junior Academy added: “It was a great opportunity to mix with other schools and get out and do something different.

“The pupils enjoyed creating their designs and then trying out the different activities that all contributed to transforming an unused area into a practical garden which is great for wildlife and encourages a better environment”