A landscape gardener with a vision…
…to enable children to learn about nature in an entertaining way.
Passionate about teaching children about the environment – Outside!
My Story
My first environment based project was at primary school where I built a hedgehog house. I then built a wave machine at secondary school to study coastal erosion, I then built a humane squirrel trap and designed a glacial reconstruction tank when I studied Geography at Exeter University.
I then worked in IT in London for a few years. I became a landscape gardener and as time went on I re-kindled my passion for conservation. I thought back to my younger days having so much fun and learning about the environment through projects done at home and at school I wanted to un-lock this feeling for others.
So I built a “build your own pond kit”
Designed to entertain, teach and engage.
Why Ponds?
It all starts with water…all life requires water to thrive, a pond is a great way of producing a hub for nature in your garden. Many species will utilise the water source and your child will experience the most life.
Ponds are carbon sinks…a pond supports more life and stores carbon in it’s waters so can actually off-set more carbon per square meter more than you would think! Ponds can significantly improve surrounding soil quality and the overall health of the local ecosystem. They act as miniature, natural, water-management systems that enhance biodiversity, increase soil moisture, and provide a source of nutrient-rich fertilizer.
Ponds change…as seasons change and weather changes, the local nature will interact with the pond differently and all these changes can be observed. Creating a point of interest in your garden for years to come.
Why did we choose tube packaging?
The tubes can be cut into up to 12 plant pots that can be used to germinate your seeds that come included with the build your own pond kit.
This is a great way of getting you child into growing plants from our seeds designed to attract bees and pollinators or other seeds you have bought from the super market. Which can be another source learning and entertainment watching butterflies and bees do their thing!
Uses for a pond
Taking 1 – 5 hours to build.
Teach children about nature.
Watch as life comes to the pond
Nurture more wildlife.
A pond takes in C02 from the environment.
Improve your garden’s look.
My journey to designing the pond kit…
Hop onto our blog
Forming the idea
I was trying to think of how to have the maximum amount of conservational impact for the lowest possible cost to provide an educational value. I considered, residential solar systems, vertical living walls, wild flower gardens, wind turbines, re-wilding and I settled on exploring “wetlands” further.
This lead me onto exploring how residential gardens have become “deserts” and one of the most effective ways of reducing this is to add a pond area combined with wild flower area.
So how small can a pond go? The answer is, around 1 square meter in diameter and around 65cm in maximum depth.
How much carbon does a pond this size take in?
They typically bury an average of 142 grams of organic carbon per square meter each year. Their sediments can store carbon at rates up to 20 to 30 times higher per square meter than surrounding woodlands or grasslands.
How entertaining and achievable is the pond build?
I estimated the pond will take anything from 4 to 12 hours to complete. When I built mine I removed around 4-5 wheel barrows of top soil. You will need a place to store all of this soil, for example building up a flower, herb or vegetable bed.
I estimated the pond will be viewed and studied by the child for at least 30 minutes a week, especially in the exciting spring and summer months. That’s around 26+ hours less I-pad time a year!
I considered how I could add value to idea and decided to provide a nature guide and picture book to add some background and a story to the pond and the changes to the plants and animals they would be seeing.
The pond in a tube now comes with a picture book and nature guide to help guide learning throughout the seasons, maximising the entertainment and learning value of building a pond.
Launching the idea
I’ve built the website, done the research and personally built 5+ ponds, to experiment with different techniques.
I am now happy with the final product and you can buy it here.