Living wall - school pupils help transform neighbourhood

Students from Pool Academy joined forces with staff from Coastline Housing and Coastline Services to create a living wall in the village of Stithians in Cornwall.

They filled a newly installed retaining wall with a variety of plants which, when established and in flower, will create a colourful rainbow pattern for local residents and provide rich pickings for the local bee population too.

The wall has been installed as part of a wider project to provide 12 extra parking bays for local residents on the Collins Parc estate, who had listed car-parking as their number one problem when asked by Coastline how satisfied they were with their neighbourhood.

Emma Sutton, Neighbourhood Improvement Surveyor at Coastline, said: “We were very pleased to work with local school children to take an otherwise grey retaining wall and transform it into something that will brighten up the whole neighbourhood for years to come. The pupils thoroughly enjoyed getting out of the classroom to do some practical horticultural work and fed back to their teachers that they would like to do something similar at school."

The planting has been designed so that, over the coming years, the greenery and blooms will grow down in layers over the wall so as to completely obscure the original structure.

Emma adds: “It is becoming more and more accepted that the natural environment can have a positive effect on health and happiness. However, traditional formal flower beds are expensive to maintain. After searching far and wide, we eventually managed to import this retaining wall structure which features pockets for planting from France. As well as transforming the neighbourhood and being good for the environment, it will also be cost effective to maintain in future."

The area will be finished off with the planting of some cherry blossom trees in the spring.