Trinity Community Garden levels up with RHS

We are delighted to share that the Trinity Community Garden has recently achieved the Level 4 RHS School Gardening Award and has been awarded a £100 gardening voucher.  

To achieve Level 4, we had to demonstrate that the garden encourages wildlife, that gardening supports the curriculum and that we are inspiring others by sharing plants and seeds. 

Mrs Prestney, Teacher of Geography who heads up the Green Council and Gardening Club, says, “I am very happy our garden has received this award, and I am looking forward to spending the £100 voucher on seed potatoes, carrot seedlings and herbs for some spring planting. We’ll also look to buy some flowering shrubs to encourage bees. It’s all very exciting when the garden bursts into life for spring!” 

The Trinity Community Garden met the criteria for the RHS award by: 

Encouraging local wildlife 

• We have created water features using old art projects that birds have been using as water baths. Not only does this support the wildlife, but it also recycles unwanted ceramics projects and prevents them being thrown away. 

• A section of the garden is a ‘no-mow’ zone, encouraging wild plants to thrive and we have topped this up with wildflower seed to further encourage pollinators. 

• We also have a bug box and a bird feeder in the garden. 

Supporting the curriculum 

Several departments now utilise the garden for ‘field work’ including: 

• Biology – teaching students about biodiversity, with our no-mow zone of particular interest! They use quadrats to look at percentage diversity in allocated areas. 

• Art – Has taken students out for pencil sketching exercises as well as drying some of the flowers grown in the garden to use in still life  

• Gardening Club – continues to learn about what crops to plant at what times of year as well as researching into our new addition of a hot box composter which was kindly donated by one of our teachers. 

Inspiring others 

• A spider plant in the staff room sends out spiderettes which are propagated, and one is given to each Junior and First Year form group to look after for the year. This has run for one year, and the small plants will be given to local care homes as part of our community action Field Days. 

• When our wildflowers go to seed, we will be harvesting them to make a school seed library and share with our partner primary schools. 

• In November 2024, our alumnus Fergus Corrigan (Class of 2009) visited Trinity Gardening Club to tell students about his organic lavender farming business. He brought us some wildflower seeds, which we have just planted, and he also explained how to cut back our lavender which we did – gifting little dried flower posies to staff.