Children from Goodlyburn Primary School planned, designed and created an urban garden in the heart of Perth City Centre. St John’s Shopping Centre is now home to a colourful new greenspace with the hope of attracting some new tenants in the shape of Bees, Butterflies and Spiders.

The project was a joint venture between St John’s Shopping Centre, Goodlyburn Primary School, Scotland’s Rural College and Zero Waste Perth along with the support of other members of the community with the aim of creating a further space for biodiversity to thrive in the City Centre where space for such gardens can be limited. 

The once unused space is now home to a ‘Bug Hotel’ and 5 new mini gardens that we’re created by the 10 Children from the local primary school. The children gained new skills and knowledge throughout the process from the early planning stages right through to the actual planting itself. The children were the key decision makers in the project with them planning how the space would be used and how they wanted it to look.

Christina McGregor, Class Teacher from Goodlyburn Primary School said: "We have loved working with St John’s shopping centre and the many other organisations and businesses who were involved in this project. The pupils have been empowered to make decisions and have a voice on how they wanted the project to developed. The children have been instrumental in creating a unique and lasting space in their City Centre and they are proud of what they have created”.

The project was a real community effort with Poundland kindly donating garden accessories for the children to use in their gardens, Starbucks provided used ground coffee that was used as fertilizer when planting and Allander Security and cleaning kindly donated 4 tonnes of soil.