Very excited … our idea for the design of a literary garden has been commissioned by a school in NW3. What greater way to get those kids reciting and engaging with beautiful Shakespearean language than by having the flowers and plants, mentioned in the plays, all around them in the playground!

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,

Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,

Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,

With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:

There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,

Lull’d in these flowers with dances and delight.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Act 2 Scene 1 255-60)

Our planting plan will also include: Lavender (The Winters Tale – A4 Sc5); Rose (Hamlet – A4 Sc5); Fennel (Henry IV Pt2 – A2 Sc4); Crab Apple (The Taming of The Shrew – A2 Sc1); Roses (Henry VI – A2 Sc4).

What a fabulous way of linking garden design with a school curriculum! If only the head would let us build a raised bed, which from a top shot, looks like an opened classical book.