Here is my Final design for the garden, although it doesn't include the finer details of planting schemes or pathway materials for instance. The former can be found in the Funding document further down, whilst the latter has yet to be decided upon. I am taking the different sections of the garden in turn & providing enlarged versions of each of the mapped areas, along with an explanation of the different elements that I am including within each part of the design.

 Instead of using a timeline for the History gardens, I have grouped them around a central element, a Mulberry tree. The Mulberry was introduced by the Romans & so becomes an essentially common element for all the gardens. Being an unusual & delicious fruit it should attract the children as well as the wildlife & it will provide a shaded place for children to be taught around. Mulberries are not big trees & so it is also in proportion with the space it is going to occupy. The access into the garden from the south is through the area where the wattle & daub building stands, providing an extension to the History teaching area. Apart from the Medlar & the Service tree, none of these gardens will contain any very tall elements, so they do not cast any shade on those behind.

 The simulated grass & cereal areas will receive the full sun that they would typically be exposed to. As the School doesn't want the responsibility for any animals in the garden, the grazed area will have to be simulated as best as possible (by mowing it), but not in such a sustainable fashion. However, considering the fact that the whole site is currently being mown, this would be quite a step forward! The gardens to the south are all of curved & chaotic form. In contrast, I have placed the more formally ordered & squared-off gardens of the Romans & the Tudors either side the circular central element, to try & soften their impact on the rest of the area. The details of the plantings in these gardens can be found in the Funding document below. In order to keep the drain cover in the middle of the site accessible, but not very visible, I have surrounded it with the rockery on one side & the composting area on the other. The alpines on the rockery are there to represent the ice age period & the planting here will be carried out by the tutor I have liaised with, who specialises in these species.

 The Victorian cottage garden also borders this central area & at it's opposite end surrounds the eco-building on two walls. It is bounded by a picket fence & contains three small trees, a Rowan (traditionally planted at the gateway for protection), a winter flowering Cherry (for early colour & bird food) & a Quince (once a popular fruit for preserving). These trees provide a certain amount of shade in the garden & around the eco-building & collectively with the other trees in that area go some way to breaking up the square edges of the tennis court fencing & the building too. I am placing a traditional archway over the gate to provide more vertical climbing space & using the bricks from the low walls around the concrete foundation to make a traditional brick pathway to the building. The cottage garden is a fairly chaotic affair & will be relatively low maintenance compared with the other History gardens. Because the list of plants that I have from this era is so extensive, I am planning on mainly planting species here that also have Permacultural uses. This way, the two gardens in a sense blend together in this area. The part of the foundation not under the building can be utilised as a cottage container garden.

 The eco-building itself would best fit into the garden as a straw bale construction. This would connect with the wattle & daub building, being essentially a modern version of the same thing, whilst also demonstrating the practicalities of such a dwelling. It will double as both a classroom & an exhibition space, which would contain lots of information about the garden & about the construction of the building too. The building would provide another opportunity for rooftop water catchment & this could be stored behind the building in recycled barrels, connected together. These will provide water for the two container gardens, where it will most be needed. The sports hall roof already provides an opportunity for rain catchment which could also be utilised in the garden. The unsightly chainlink fence provides an ideal climbing trellis for vigorous plants such as Passiflora, Kiwi, Akebia & Honeysuckle (in the Cottage garden section).

 The eco-building also acts as the 'home' in terms of demonstrating the use of zones in Permaculture design. Zone 0 is the building itself, then the area surrounding it & the most used walkways are classified as zone 1; this is the intensively cultivated area where plants requiring the most attention are placed. Next to the 'house' is the concrete left over at the north end of the building & this is being used as a demonstration 'patio' area for alternative container gardening. It will have a shaded area provided by the building, which would provide a place for shade-loving plants & help to prevent summer salads going to seed too quickly. This area will be where we demonstrate how lots of waste materials like yogurt pots, juice cartons, old toilets & tyres can be used successfully as containers to grow food in.

 Just beyond the patio area, but still in Zone 1 are the keyhole beds. These are designed to maximise the growing space & minimise the paths needed, whilst also providing naturally curved routes through the garden. These are planted up with a diversity of herbs, salads & vegetables, plus the occasional small shrub, such as a soft fruit bush. This area will utilise techniques such as mulching, companion planting (guilds) & vertical stacking to demonstrate their value in the garden. The entrance into the garden in this corner is via a footgate next to the sports hall. I have designed the path to follow the natural flow of people over to the wattle & daub building in the south west corner, skirting around the eco-building, but allowing routes off this main path to explore the rest of the garden. One such detour takes the inquisitive student into a small series of tunnels made out of living Willow woven together at the top. This is one of the interactive teaching elements that no doubt the children would be involved in creating.

 Exercises in observation for instance will also be encouraged by the planting of species with a diversity of tastes, scents, colours, textures & sounds (i.e. when rustled). Small ponds provide habitats for a host of other creatures, whilst not being very dangerous for the children to be around. Just to the north east of the keyhole beds are the smaller fruit & nut trees, which provide a crop every year for little work & attract pollinating insects into the garden during the spring. Behind these are the canopy trees which provide further shelter for the whole site from the north winds, habitats for wildlife & more crops too. Beyond the trees along the eastern side & around to the southern boundary is an edible hedge. This will consist of native species that provide food for humans & wildlife alike, plus biomass, habitats & shelter. The pathways around the site will be wheelchair friendly, but I'm not yet clear about the best way to do this. While concrete would provide a suitable surface, I would rather find a more natural alternative to using this. Some of the beds will be raised to allow wheelchair users to be able to garden at a height most suited to their needs.

 The main area for growing biomass & building materials though will be a couple of stands of Osier (Willow) & an area of Hazel coppice. These will provide some materials for the children to do crafts & project work & to learn about how these plants are managed to produce them. While the Willow may be able to provide quite a lot of the material the School uses, the Hazel will take some time to become productive & as it is usually cut on a seven year rotation, it won't provide much more than a demonstration area. Whilst there is insufficient room in the garden for any more coppice, another area nearby could be planted up at the same time to provide the extra materials needed if desired. The White Filbert is planted here at the end of the belt of fruit & nut trees as it was introduced by the Tudors & so again provides a link between the different gardens. Several rows of vines will be accommodated in this area too, showing that good grapes can be grown outdoors in the South west of England, just as long as the right varieties are chosen. The composting area provides an opportunity for students to learn about the many different ways that this can be done & the importance of compost in maintaining a productive, healthy soil.

 A selection of methods will be demonstrated, including a wormery, leafmould bin, modern plastic & recycled pallet bins & the pros & cons of each will also be explained. One of the ways that this will be done is by using a variety of signs & these will also be sited around the rest of the garden, wherever an element is placed to demonstrate something. Next to the composting demonstration, there is an area of soft fruit bushes. Whilst soft fruit is also dotted around under the trees & in the beds, this is the place (in zone 1) where they can be most easily managed. Here they will get more sun than those under the trees & so they should provide an earlier crop. A variety of fruits will be grown here to demonstrate the diversity of species & cultivars available & to provide extra tastes for the observation exercises.

 Although it is not really possible in such a small space to really demonstrate zoning, I am including a 'wilderness' (zone 5) area. Currently, this is mown grass like the rest of the site, but given time, the pioneer plants will start off the process & it will return to a much more wild state. As vehicular access is required through the field gate from the car park, the obvious place for zone 5 to be is in the far corner beyond the gate. This enables me to plant a hedge either side of this access & create a natural boundary for both the garden & the zone 5 area.

 By not including any kind of access into the zone 5 area for humans, I hope to keep it as undisturbed as possible. Whilst the hedge could be trimmed on the outside to keep the vehicular access clear, on the inside it can do whatever it wants to & quickly become a valuable habitat for wildlife. The main garden hedge too will in time become a wildlife corridor around the garden, which is also part of zone 5 in the design.

 Funding Document

  This is the funding document that I came up with after much deliberation. It still lacks the costings required for it to be usable & since I wrote it the eco-building also became a possibility, which is why it is not included here. It includes a phased implementation schedule for the design (part of the Australian design cycle), though the inclusion of an eco-building in the design would probably make its construction the new phase one. I hope that some day I will be able to complete this document & use it to raise funds to finally implement this garden. As usual, you can click on any page to get a more easily read version if needed.

 The third page simply had my contact details on & so I am not including it here. Page four onwards contains the different appendices that I chose to include with the document & so here they are in full:

 Finally I decided to include a list of sallets (salads) from John Evelyn's 'Acetaria' published in 1699 as it related to both the historical side of the garden & the permaculture side. Many of these plants are experiencing a revival of interest & are being grown again in permaculture gardens.

 An evaluation of this whole process can be found on the Design Review page.