Mitch waters the plants at Bayles Primary School.THE garden at Bayles Primary School used to be the talk of the town, now it’s attracted statewide attention.
Over several months, students and teachers have transformed the school from an education centre to an Eden.
The grounds feature new garden beds, a rotunda, shade shelters and even a ‘frog bog’, which has become a haven for wildlife.
All that hard work has attracted the attention of judges in the annual schools’ garden awards, and they will arrive by helicopter tomorrow to see the results of the students’ labour.
Bayles is one of about 34 schools around Victoria taking part in the finals of the competition, and principal Sue Goodall said it was a big thrill for the community.
“It’s pretty huge news for our little school,” she said. “The kids have really taken this project to heart. They’ve been involved with the planning, design and have helped with the planting, watering and all the other work.
“Parents have really embraced what we’ve been doing as well.
“We’ve got only 94 children at the school, and we had about 50 families involved at a recent working bee.”
Mrs Goodall said the school had received a huge amount of community support.
“We started with a blank canvas and it’s developed from there.”
