Queen’s Park Infant Academy Soil Donation
Queen’s Park Infant Academy Soil Donation
Stone Zone was delighted to have donated Wessex® BS3882 10mm Soil to the Queen’s Park Infant Academy a few months ago. We had the pleasure of being able to visit the Academy to see first-hand how our Soil was used.
Queen’s Park Infant Academy invited us, alongside representatives from Dorset Garden Trust and Gibbs & Dandy, to see what the children and teachers have been up to with the donated materials.
Seeing the fantastic allotment that has been designed using only a few materials was amazing. There are 3 long sleeper beds across the allotment where many fruits and vegetables are planted all around the area.
School Garden Allotment
It has been a great experience to be able to witness the progress the children at the academy have made in creating the allotment.
The area consists of 3 sleepers filled with a wide array of fruits and vegetables that were already sprouting, and then around the borders they had planted even more fruits and vegetables, most notably an impressive amount of rhubarb and a wide range of herbs. Some of the products that were being grown were runner beans, lettuce, carrots and more!
The teachers explained to us that creating this allotment has been a rewarding experience for the children to get stuck in every Friday where they are able to get out of the classroom and contribute to their school garden. In small groups of 6 children, every Friday afternoon they are able to get away from the classroom and work on the garden by collecting all the fruits and veggies that are ready to harvest; clearing out any dead foliage and watering all the plants that require it. These activities are especially effective during the Spring and Summer seasons.
The staff members also emphasised how important it was to them to encourage outdoor activities and prospects outside of academics and encourage the children to learn more about gardening and food and how this has been an excellent gateway to get them to be more interested. It was important to show the children that there are many options for those who may not enjoy being inside the classroom all the time or are more interested in physical activities.
Furthermore, the allotment has been a great way to explain to the children how their foods are grown and where they come from, and as a result, they are able to understand that fresh produce doesn’t just magically turn up in the shops and their shopping basket. There was a lot of importance given to explaining to the children that growing and consuming fresh, local produce will always be better
And finally, all the produce that is grown in the allotment, is distributed amongst the kids to take to their families so they are able to enjoy and appreciate the fruits of their labours that they worked so hard to cultivate. Not only does this encourage more appreciation for where their food comes from, but also highlights how delicious home-grown fruits and vegetables are.
The Wessex® BS3882 10mm Soil
The Stone Zone’s own Wessex® BS3882 10mm Soil is the best option for projects like this as it is one of the best overall soils that we supply.
The Wessex® 10mm Soil is a mixture of high-quality local British Standard Topsoil and PAS 100 green compost. The Wessex® Soil is then tested in accordance with BS3882:2015 and once certified we can officially claim it as being a British Standard-certified Soil.
You may be wondering was the PAS 100 and BS3882 mean, let us explain.
PAS is an acronym for the Publicly Available Specification, which is a highly recognised compost quality standard within the organics recycling sector. The British Standards Institution developed the PAS to maintain our compost’s high standard. Any soil that has been awarded the PAS 100 certification means that they have been recognised as creating non-hazardous waste that only consists of biodegradable materials which in turn makes them safe for use in domestic and commercial areas.
The BS3882 refers to the British Standard 3882 certification which is a certification awarded to topsoil that has been laid out, to guarantee a consistent, high-performance grade. This certification and standard are set by the British Standard Institute. The BS3992 is measured in three categories, soil structure and classification, and finally, fertility.
The entirety of our Wessex® Soils collection contains the BS3882 soil to create the highest quality topsoil. The range includes Blended 10mm Loam Topsoil, Borders & Beds Topsoil, Fruit & Veg Topsoil, Lawn & Turf Seeding Soil and many more. Browse the entire range HERE.
Queen’s Park Infant Academy Visit
As we mentioned earlier, it was truly delightful to be able to see what the teachers and students were able to achieve with our soil and we were extremely grateful to have been gifted a whole bunch of rhubarb for us to enjoy, alongside a beautifully made card and a lovely flower pot. We look forward to seeing all the amazing fruits and veggies that children continue to grow in their allotment and to witnessing how much it expands in the future.
