Community spirit is bringing St Illtyd’s garden to life

Regular readers of the New Illtydian will know that we are developing an area of land at the school into a garden area. The school garden at St Illtyd's is very much a work in progress. It is a large area - approximately 860 square metres.

The area was overgrown with weeds and brambles and had laid abandoned for years, so much so that it was impossible to even enter the area when we first started the project. We made a good start last year by having the area cleared by Ryan Landscaping, who cleared it free of charge for us, and by planting some trees (donated by Ryan Landscaping) and a wildflower meadow as part of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee Superbloom project. We have also planted fruit trees in the orchard area (donated by Coed Caerdydd).

To move the project forward, back in March we were offered the opportunity for a team from Arcadis to come and work on the garden as part of their charity/community day.

On Monday March 20th, a team of nine staff from Arcadis came to St Illtyd’s to work on the school garden. Although the conditions were not the best (it rained heavily for most of the day), the team ploughed on and tackled an extensive list of jobs. During the course of the day, the team put together a shed and water storage system, built planters, tidied up and planted in our reflection garden, cut back trees, put up bee hotels (made by our Eco Club members), sowed wildflower seeds, put together a wheelbarrow, litter picked, levelled off ground and gave the whole area a general tidy.

As you can see from our photos, it was an extremely productive day. We are extremely grateful to Colin Reith and the team from Arcadis for giving up their time to come and work in the garden. We would like to say a HUGE, HUGE thank you to all of them - we really appreciate everything they did on the day. We would also like to say a massive thank you to Arcadis for the generous donation of tools, kneelers, gloves, watering cans, compost, and wildflower seeds that they brought with them on the day.

Thank you to Bridgend College

On a sunny day in May, a team from Bridgend College led by Horticultural Lecturer Anthony Davies came to the garden to give it a much needed tidy up. Large areas were strimmed and sand was laid for the footpaths. Anthony and the team did an amazing job in tidying up the garden and have promised to come back and help us out again in the autumn by putting up a polytunnel and digging a trench that will help with drainage. Then in the spring, they will come and plant our winning design from the Bridgend College Garden Design competition. A huge thank you to Anthony, Barbara, Paul, and Josh for their time.

Thank you to all of our supporters

We would also like to say a huge thank you to all the other companies and organisations that have supported us in this project so far:

·         Ryan Landscaping - not only for clearing the area for us back in February 2022 and donating 35 trees, but also for returning in March 2023 to cultivate the area for us.

·         Gary Talbot, Project Manager-Development & Regeneration, Cardiff County Council for delivering two large water cubes which we are now using as water storage in the garden along with donations of timber.

·         Lee James & Mike Rutter of Calibre Contracting - for the donation of slabs for our pathways.

·         Catherine Pargeter, Community Engagement Manager at Llanrumney Hall - for the donation of a polytunnel frame which we plan to erect in our garden.

·         Alexandra Nita, First Campus Officer at Reaching Wider South East Wales - for organising a fantastic sustainability project- “It’s the Bees Knees” in which our Eco Club members learnt about the importance of bees and visited Cardiff Metropolitan University to visit the beehives and make bee hotels - which are now proudly located in our garden.

·         Paul Benson from Greens Recycling/Caerphilly Skip Hire/M Jones Road Haulage Ltd- for a donation of 8 tonnes of sharp sand to use in the base of the slabs in our pathways

·         Cardiff St Davids Rotary Club - for a donation of £300 that will be used to purchase cement for our pathways

• Luisa May, Community Focused Schools Co-ordinator