John Masefield High School pupils open sustainable garden

Mayor Phillip Howells and consort Hilary Jones were also at John Masefield High School for the official opening of the garden on Wednesday (May 10).

Teaching assistant Linda Davies has been instrumental in the creation of the garden, which is being used to grow flowers and trees as well as produce to be used in cookery lessons.

She got the project off the ground by successfully applying for a grant from the RHS and has enlisted the help of a number of local companies to turn what was an abandoned patch of land into a working garden.

The garden has been created from scratch in four months (Image: NQ)

Headteacher Andy Evans said: “Congratulations to everybody involved in this project. We first discussed the idea four years ago, then the pandemic happened and progress was halted.

“This has been created from scratch - the area was a complete wasteland but in four months it has been transformed into this beautiful and useful garden.”

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Mrs Davies told Year 8 pupils who have been helping in the garden: “You have given so much of your free time to me to come and do this, so thank you.

“And if you are free in the summer, you can come and give me a hand packing up some food boxes to give to the community.”

She said her next project would be to create a wildlife area for the school.

The entrance to the school's new garden (Image: NQ)

Phillip Howells, on one of his last official engagements in his mayoral year, said: “This is about sustainability.”

Referring to the Big Help Out, which formed part of the King’s coronation weekend, he added: “Monday was about volunteering and you are a shining example of people volunteering to make a difference and to make something sustainable.

“You might inspire the rest of Ledbury - your mums and dads perhaps. We’re talking about the environment and the next 20 or 30 years are critical if we’re going to make a difference.”