Harrod Horticultural teamed up with a local Lowestoft school this spring to donate gardening products for their perennially successful lunchtime gardening and eco club. Pupils at Pakefield High School wrote to Harrod Horticultural early in 2013 to request product donations for their gardening and eco club run by Mel Mathews and Clare Cloves. The club is a popular lunchtime activity where pupils develop work based learning skills for their future careers. “It was a natural step for us to donate gardening products to Pakefield High School as they are so close to our offices. Our schools Budding Gardeners programme supports school gardening across the country at grass roots level. This is important to us as a company as children are the gardeners of tomorrow” says Stephanie Harrod, Managing Director of Harrod Horticultural.
Raised beds, manger raised planters, raised bed tables and the ever popular anti-bird and soft butterfly netting were donated to the club by Harrod Horticultural. The products were previously used on the Harrod Horticultural 2012 Chelsea Flower Show stand which the company has exhibited at annually for the previous 10 years. They were planted up in their new home by the students in the spring and Aaron Knights, a pupil at the school commented “There is no better feeling than the pride of home grown vegetables. I cannot wait until the food is in the café”. “This garden is our hope, our hope at improving the environment, our hope that Pakefield can pride itself on our environment” said Josh Sturman, fellow gardening and eco club member. “The raised beds and managers are ideal for our school garden. They have made our allotment area look great and will provide the perfect environment for our vegetables and flowers. Many thanks to Harrod Horticultural for their generosity” Mel Mathews and Clare Cloves, lunchtime gardening club and eco club teachers.
Cheryl Willis, Careers Co-ordinator at Pakefield High School says “We are very proud to be associated with Harrod UK and feel the relationship will benefit the School, the local community and encourage and develop work based learning skills in our young people.” As Harrod Horticultural look to cement the relationship for the future, a number of water butts will shortly be donated to the school garden and allotment area to educate and encourage the importance of water conservation from a young age.
Budding Gardeners (www.buddinggardeners.co.uk) is the Harrod Horticultural school website where you can find curriculum advice, competitions to enter and factsheets to download for use in the classroom. Schools can sign up to Budding Gardeners for FREE in order to receive up to 20% discount from the Harrod Horticultural range visit www.buddinggardeners.co.uk for further info.
