Max’s room was inspired by the children’s book, ‘Where the Wild Things’ by Maurice Sendak.
We chose this as a theme because we wanted to recreate the magical transformation from reality to fantasy illustrated in the book as Max’s imagination transports him from his bedroom to the land of the wild things.
Children enter the garden through a bed-shaped gate and sail along the estuary-styled woodchip path until they land ashore where they can turn either left or right to find two star-shaped raised beds. Lining each side of the path are two longer and higher raised beds with the added feature of Perspex viewing boxes on either side inviting children to delve into the world of the underground to take a peek at who or what lies beneath. In the near right corner of the garden next to the Birch tree sits a wooden viewing platform in the style of a traditional Victorian landing with turf flooring. This idea was conceived to further emphasise the change from real to surreal. Then, keeping watch over the garden are paintings of all the monsters in full ‘Rumpus’ mode.
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Our first project, The Temple of Bloom came about during my time as a Year one Teacher. At a staff meeting, we were asked to each run a weekly extra-curricular club to help the school achieve the ‘Healthy Schools’ award. I decided to run a gardening club but we needed a garden. With a budget zero, a group of very kind friends and a lot of asking for free stuff, we began building. Several weekends and holidays later, we had built a fully equipped garden and allotment with a teepee weaved of willow, a compost heap, a beach and an animal habitat built by the children.
On Friday afternoons, myself and the young gardeners steadily put the finishing touches to the garden, painting, planting digging and building whilst proudly watching it grow into the finished, Temple of Bloom.
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