When the Glasgow Mid Week Group was asked to create a Numeracy Garden at Auchenlodment Primary School in Johnstone, I had no idea about the scale of what we were actually taking on! We were scheduled to do 8 work days on site starting in mid-June and we completed the last day today – and what a turnaround!
We have to clear this?!
The site was covered with old concrete slabs and granite sets embedded in concrete. There was more concrete around the plas-wood benches and seats. The volunteers tirelessly smashed up the slabs, dug out and cleaned over 1000 granite sets and removed the old plastic seating. They removed and processed so much concrete that we were able to use it as Type 1 to create a level foundation for the garden.
We have to break all this up into wee pieces?!
It was a long, slow process to get the groundwork done – almost 5 days of hard labour – and the site could easily have been mistaken for the set of a film about a prison camp!
Gradually the site started to take shape and the next stage was to lay out the concrete to form a new surface for the garden.
- Ah so this is why we smashed all that concrete
Once we had cleared the ground we started to build the shelter that the children will use for outdoor numeracy lessons. We dug 6 holes and then postcreted in the support posts for the shelter – this stage was critical as we had to make sure everything was level. We then constructed the frame to support the corrugated plastic roof panels before fixing it into place and adding back panels and a perspex side to the shelter.
All hands on deck at Auchenlodment Primary School
Constructing the roof frame for the shelter
The volunteers also built 3 raised beds and a sandpit before barrowing 3 bulk bags of top soil to fill the planters and 6 bulk bags of gravel to cover the whole area. Not bad for 8 days work! I am so impressed by how hard the volunteers have worked over our time there and the finished product is something to be very proud of.
The finished Numeracy Garden and some of the volunteers who worked so hard to create it
The finished shelter and sandpit