“The Love Trees Cornwall funding will help to fund a new project which is part of our development of a Mental Health and Wellbeing Centre. The funding will contribute towards the creation of a sensory garden. The area will be landscaped and include a fully accessible path through a newly planted wooded area which will include features, surfaces, objects and plants to stimulate the senses through touch, sight, scent, taste and hearing.”
CREATING GREEN SPACES
Humphry Davy School
wellness centre with garden
Orchard at Pendeen School
Created by Sustainable Pendeen
A carefully thought through project involving preliminary land clearance and the choice of specific fruit and nut trees to suit this exposed site, such as apple, crab apple, damson, elder, hazel - with rowan, wild raspberries and wild currants. Bulbs and native herbs like sorrel and mint, and wild flowers which are particularly insect friendly were added around the tree trunks for children to observe, eat and to enjoy.
Children, especially those not used to gardening or wild places, receive practical, hands on experience looking after these trees and watching them grow as they do themselves. This orchard will link them into nature as they absorb different stages of tree care and see food gradually growing - from blossom to belly!
Like a pocket forest, this will be a perfect place for forest school lessons in the fresh air, playing in nature and generating an intuitive love of trees.
Good planning, emotional commitment and onsite collaboration have resulted in a beautiful little school orchard. Generous professionals including helpful gardeners, a professional sign writer and an expert baker have contributed for free to this community project led by a dedicated teacher and two eco-activists.y School Plan for a Wellness Garden
Full details on www.centreofpendeen.co.uk see ‘Sustainable Pendeen’, ‘Pendeen School Orchard’
Celebrations highlighting the young Green Team’s heartfelt love of nature, and interest in working for the environment in the future were clearly expressed to inspire the rest of the school.
Combining optimism and happy frivolity they delivered their speeches with vigour, wearing appropriate headgear decorated with leaves, apples, trees and green fingers!
one of the first apple trees to blossom
Paul Community Orchard
Paul Parish is changing an old cholera field into a Community Orchard. This safe space, away from the main road, can link with the existing Peace Garden in the village, which has an adjacent, well-furnished Community Hall. All the staff and students of nearby Mousehole Primary School took part in the first tree planting session (mainly Cornish apples), working together to create a strong sense of ownership.
This will be a great place for future celebration. The chief gardener is looking forward to cider-making and serious wassailing, with villagers hoping to run nature painting classes, juice making and wellness activities. The area has also gained scientific attention from ‘Budding Nature’.
Many local organisations have helped to create this peaceful place, including trees from the ‘Forest for Cornwall’, and practical advice from ‘Resilient Orchards’. A new European link is being established through the creation of one of Havel’s Places designed to promote convivial conversations, in honour of this international playwright. This is a green space where art and nature combine beautifully to foster the community.
original, neglected cholera field before first planting of the orchard
orchard site highlighted within village on left of image
St Ives Community Orchard
St. Ives Community Orchard also includes international contributions, as with visiting Italian soil experts. They host many green events, often from their new core centre. They run many workshops, such as on forestry creation and ecology as well as craft sessions and outdoor activities, sometimes linked to the native woodland adjoining their site. They encourage home schooling groups, who especially enjoy picking their apples, as well as teaching local school children about green issues, as from their vegetable and herb gardens. They celebrate solstice and similar ceremonies with food, festive fires, music and dancing.
Newquay Community Orchard
Newquay Community Orchard runs many courses to include different ages and interests as well as encouraging psychological health through local NHS social prescribers and an onsite wellness team. They grow their own delicious, organic vegetables for their own superb café. Amongst everything else, they have two permanent classrooms. They develop more agricultural opportunities with their nearby farm. they promote educational links and have a symbolic horticultural project called ‘Growing Futures’.
