I run a gardening club at my children's school, and in January I was approached by one of the grandparents of one of the children about bringing bees to the school. I didn't think the head would go for it, but was pleasantly suprised when they agreed. We applied for a CASH grant, and won. Then the planning started. The school is situated right next to an allotment site, and there happened to be a very overgrown plot right opposite the school fence. We took the plot over and work began. The council cleared the site, and Manchester University architect students designed the plot taken from drawings the children had done to show what they would like the site to be like. As part of their course, the Uni students designed an edible pavillion and built it. We also had volunteers from a project called Orange Rock Corps who came and helped with the finishing touches. This project gets people to do 4 hours work on a community project in return for tickets to a special gig, which included Lady GaGa and Dizzy Rascal, among other well known bands.
We did really well with the council. The plans the students came up with were well out of our budget, and were what we would have liked if money was no object. We wanted to get as close to the designs as we could but never did we think we would acheive anything near. The council took the plans and over the space of a week, they built it. We are so grateful as they have spent about £8000 more than we paid them! I think this project just ticked all the right boxes for what Man City council is trying to invest in so we are very lucky. The site is finished now, and the bees will be here soon, ready to settle into their new home. The school has been keeping a blog about the project, the photos at this link are of the site when it was half way done. I will be posting picture of the finished site this week, and when the bees come next week, I will post some pictures of that too.
I hope this explains a little about the project. I am so proud of what we have acheived. Now I can't wait to see how the children take to the bees, and I hope we will be creating the bee keepers of the future.
Thanks for taking the time to read this blog.
http://www.stjamesmanchester.co.uk/Gallery/tabid/84/AlbumID/449-79/Page/0/Default.aspx
We did really well with the council. The plans the students came up with were well out of our budget, and were what we would have liked if money was no object. We wanted to get as close to the designs as we could but never did we think we would acheive anything near. The council took the plans and over the space of a week, they built it. We are so grateful as they have spent about £8000 more than we paid them! I think this project just ticked all the right boxes for what Man City council is trying to invest in so we are very lucky. The site is finished now, and the bees will be here soon, ready to settle into their new home. The school has been keeping a blog about the project, the photos at this link are of the site when it was half way done. I will be posting picture of the finished site this week, and when the bees come next week, I will post some pictures of that too.
I hope this explains a little about the project. I am so proud of what we have acheived. Now I can't wait to see how the children take to the bees, and I hope we will be creating the bee keepers of the future.
Thanks for taking the time to read this blog.
http://www.stjamesmanchester.co.uk/Gallery/tabid/84/AlbumID/449-79/Page/0/Default.aspx
