Our show garden at Hampton Court

We were thrilled to win a gold award at Chelsea Flower Show 2008, but we didn’t want to stop there... so we created another, bigger Edible Playground for the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show, where we won a gold medal and the stunning Tudor Rose Award for Best Show Garden! It’s been an amazing boost for the Edible Playgrounds project, and we really hope it will inspire lots more schools to plant a veg garden in their grounds and encourage children to cook with what they grow.

It was certainly lovely to see so many children getting enthusiastic about all the yummy things growing in the garden, as you can see in our film of the opening of the garden.

All about the garden...

The garden was designed, constructed and grown here in Dorset and we were delighted to be working with garden designer Nick Williams-Ellis (responsible for our Chelsea garden) and garden construction company Goddard Landscapes.

The garden, which has now found a new home at Holy Trinity Primary School in Weymouth, is brimming with colourful and tasty plants, from Pink Passion chard to blueberries, strawberries, sweetcorn, Welsh onions, Corsican mint and lots more.

It also has many environmental features, including a windmill to power the garden’s weepy-hose watering system, a fully functioning wormery for processed foods, a compost bin for kitchen and garden waste, rainwater collection and a green roof for the outdoor classroom area.

It even has an insect house, provided by David’s Closer to Nature. If you like creepy-crawlies, have a look at some ideas for attracting wildlife into your garden here.

The build

Here are some pictures we took of the very talented Dorset team who created the garden. You can see all the hard work that has gone into transforming it from a bare patch of ground into a beautiful, colourful and inspiring garden…

The show

The garden was opened by 10 children from Beaucroft School in Dorset, who have been very busy recently working on their own Edible Playground. We thank them so much for coming to share the open day with us.

During the show we met lots of children who were keen to learn more about the garden and Edible Playgrounds, and there were lots of smiling faces when they saw our cress heads and caterpillar! We gave out packets of cress seeds to everyone who came though the garden so that they could grow their own cress when they got home. Click here to see how to make them.

We really enjoyed meeting all the children who came to see our garden and hope it’s inspired them to get growing, cooking and eating! Our garden also received lots of interest from the experts. Joe Swift, presenter of BBC’s Gardener’s World, was a frequent visitor...

What happened next

Our Edible Playgrounds Show Garden has now been transported to Holy Trinity School in Weymouth, Dorset. Here is a picture of The Green Team who worked hard to re-build the show garden at the school, whilst the children were on summer holidays. The garden was officially opened in September by HRH The Duke of Gloucester, and he was given a guided tour around the school and it's new Edible Playground.

Click here to read a letter we received from the children at Holy Trinity Primary School. We are so pleased they like their new Edible Playground! Click here to hear how they are getting on now..

Dorset Cereals would like to thank the following people for helping to make this garden possible:

Designed by Nick Williams-Ellis
Garden Room by Poulton Portables
Constructed by Goddard Landscapes
Plants by Poundbury Gardens
Berries by The Dorset Blueberry Company
Vegetable Plants by Fentongollan Farm
and Rocket Gardens
Wind turbine by Marlec Engineering
Herbs by Jekka McVicar
Cereal crops by Pearce Seeds
Trellis and compost bin by Woodlanders Garden Products
Paint by Farrow & Ball
The children and staff of all the Dorset Schools who are helping us.