Refurbishment of existing nursery grounds and creation of a a playful sensory landscape for the enjoyment, exercise and education of 2-5 year olds on a budget of £8,000
The garden has been designed to stimulate every sense, encourage questioning, storytelling, exploration and discovery. Two sleeping ‘play mound’ dragons form the backbone of the scheme, winding their way around and enclosing the reclaimed tyre sandpit and willow tunnel, across a beach, through the birch tree mini-beast area, around the climbing tree and under the bridge, to finally rest curled up together in a bamboo glade adjacent to a waterfall. Elsewhere in the garden, a grand prix tricycle track has been marked out and colourful and edible fruit and vegetables planted.
Many of the elements within the garden have been made by local craftsmen, the log play tunnel being one such example, beautifully carved out of a 1m wide log by Handspring Design. Other simpler elements such as the trellising, benches, mini-beast wood stack, bird houses and the mouse door has been constructed by RDASH woodworking studio as part of the therapy for mental health service users.
The Trust Board have instructed reShaped to prepare proposals for their entire nursery provision based on the success of this scheme.
