The Learning Garden - a perfect business model?

I have got to take my hat off to Fairweather's Garden Centre for 'thinking out of the box' with their Learning Garden.

In a time when Garden Centres are turning into out of town pot pourri malls, Fairweather's have created something with the aim of giving something back to the community so that a visit to the garden centre or to the wholesale nursery can quite literally be a learning experience.

Chris Packham, the wild life presenter opened the garden on the 20th June by ceremoniously pulling a beetroot.

This excellent project has been part funded by New Forest National Park Authority's Sustainable Development Fund.

The aim of the Learning Garden is not one of profiteering but education and with the help of volunteers who are under the stewardship of the head gardener Julian Leon, it is hoped that the project can help in the development of youngster who can come to the Learning Garden, as part of the national curriculum, and get their hands dirty whilst learning how food crops actually grow and how it gets to their dinner table - there will also be an emphasis on insect identification and composting - Beaulieu were the first Primary School to take part in this fascinating project.

I think that nursery owners and garden centre managers can very much learn from this example and I really hope that it will be well supported so that the project can thrive and become a strong feature of the community.

Comments

[Tejvan Pettinger]

An excellent idea and probably a good commercial venture in the long run

[David Aylieff-Sansom]

Philip thank you for reviewing our Learning garden.
Tejvan is correct it will be of commercial value in the long run but at present it is just a expense that we could have done without this year but we are now getting plenty of PR out of the project.
Our next challenge is linking this to the garden centre and ensuring we get linked sales and visits to the site. This project has meant that we have redirected our company aims a bit to become a centre of excellence for gardening in particular fruit and veg production, there are great opportunities also in the future for offering a greater range of vegetables being offered in the centre along with specialized products.
For the project to get really going we need to build a lecture room on the site, we currently have some rather dilapidated buildings which we will seek permission to be converted then go about a new wave of fund raising to get sponsorship to allow this part of the project to happen.
If anybody would like to know more details about the project or would like to know how we are getting on just post a note on the forum or drop me a line and I will try to get back to you. We do have a website where we are listing various aspects of the garden and also have started up a gardening blog for the punters so do have a look and would value any comments. http://www.fairweathers.co.uk