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Teaching Garden

Bringing education and learning to the heart of Harlow Carr, the Teaching Garden aims to inspire a love of gardening and the natural environment

Inspiring a passion for gardening

This purpose-built garden on the approach to the Bramall Learning Centre brings education to the heart of Harlow Carr.

School visits are free to all RHS Gardens, and at Harlow Carr there is a rolling programme of guided and self-guided learning experiences suitable for all ages, from the youngest children to adult learners. Lessons are designed to inspire a passion for gardening and encourage students to interact with their natural environment. Our aim is to stimulate and capture curiosity about nature and gardening through exciting hands-on experiences.

Hands-on learning

Different planting zones have been designed around the space, providing a broad range of planting environments and habitats, and forming the basis of different types of learning.

A wildlife pond, for example, allows for pond dipping as children turn detective to identify a variety of aquatic pond dwellers. The pond is populated with plants specifically chosen to illustrate different growth habits, leaf sizes, textures and colours.

The Teaching Greenhouse offers another learning space, where tender and exotic crops are grown through the year, and adult education classes use the greenhouse for workshops.

Anyone for nectar?

The garden incorporates ‘nectar alleys’ containing plants that provide nectar for bees and other pollinators. The planting includes Echinacea, Agastache ‘Purple Haze’, Allium sphaerocephalon, Allium hollandicum ‘Purple Sensation’, Verbena bonariensis and Rudbeckia fulgida var. deamii. School groups can learn all about the pollinating insects that visit these plants.

Nearby, swaths of grasses incorporate both wildflower meadow seed mixes and spring bulbs, both of which attract pollinators and provide spectacular horticulture from early spring through summer.

Hedgehog Street

Officially unveiled in April 2017, Hedgehog Street is a conservation initiative by the People’s Trust for Endangered Species and the British Hedgehog Preservation Society. Designed by award-winning designer Tracy Foster, the wildlife haven shows a range of simple steps that gardeners can take to help reverse declining hedgehog numbers.

Three small-scale neighbouring gardens, each created in a different style – contemporary, rustic and Mediterranean – have corridors between the boundaries, allowing hedgehogs to move freely from plot to plot. Deciduous hedges, woven fences, tunnels and holes in the boundary walls allow hedgehogs access. Safe water features, planting to encourage wildlife, nesting sites and a hedgehog house designed by local school children are also included.

Ponds are great for hedgehogs. They host amphibians and insects, which hedgehogs eat, and provide a water supply in dry spells. Although hedgehogs are good swimmers, they can drown in steep-sided ponds, so ensure your pond has sloping edges or an escape ramp.

RHS Garden Harlow Carr Horticulturist

Plants in the Teaching Garden

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The Royal Horticultural Society is the UK’s leading gardening charity. We aim to enrich everyone’s life through plants, and make the UK a greener and more beautiful place.