Sensory Garden and Fairy Garden at Mellowes

Visit Mellowes Sensory Garden In Meath

An award-winning Green Flag centre where children can explore nature and learn how to care for the environment

Green Flag award winning centre

Our many eco-friendly educational initiatives help our children to learn about caring for the natural environment, growing and eating plants and healthy food, and the concept of reduce, reuse and recycle.

• Simple environmentally friendly ways to create a home garden
• How to grow and care for your own Fruit and Vegetables
• Understand why eating healthy Fruit and Vegetables is so important
• Make your own compost at home
• Discover what a wormery can do for us

Compost Making from organic matter

While at Mellowes children are shown an easy way to make compost from leaves, grass and other material we find around us. We explain how the compost is used to grow our seed/bulbs in and how the principle of reduce, reuse and recycle helps the environment.

We donate our compost to the elderly people in our community, people visiting the centre and community projects.

This project helps children understand the importance of caring for the community we live in. It teaches them to respect the people living in our community, the plants that grow around us, and the important role they play in our community and our environment.

Taste fresh herbs from the garden at Mellowes.

Compost making using food waste

While at Mellowes children can see easy ways to make compost from our food waste at home. With the help of clay and worms we can transform these waste materials and turn them into rich compost that is perfect for our flowers, fruit and vegetables.

We also donate our compost to the elderly people in our community, people visiting the centre and community projects.

This project helps children understand the importance of caring for the community we live in. It teaches them to respect the people living around us, the plants that grow around us and the important role they play in our community and our environment.

It also helps young children connect with our elderly citizens in the community by caring, sharing and thinking of others.

Food Pyramid

The food pyramid is a very simple way for children to understand what food is best for us and why our fruit and vegetables are so important. We look at the food pyramid during each group tour to identify each fruit and vegetable, and then find and discuss similar fruit and vegetables growing in our own tunnel.

The importance of eating healthy fruit and vegetables is explained to children while on tour at Mellowes. We help children understand why it is so important and what the fruit and vegetables do for us.

This activity is interactive and educational and children get involved in identifying all the different fruit and vegetables on the food pyramid and that are growing in the growing tunnel and garden

Incredible edibles and food dudes

Helping children understand how to grow their own flowers, fruit and vegetables in fun ways is so important and has enormous benefits to their health, wellbeing and development

Children can see fun ways in which we can grow flowers, fruit and vegetables in our grow tunnel and children’s garden. Children will love seeing all the ways in which they can use the environmentally friendly concept of reduce, reuse and recycle to grow their own flowers, fruit and vegetables.

When they are ripe and fully grown children can eat their own produce, they can be given as a personal gift to friends, mum, dad or grandparents and there is a real sense of pride in children that can develop an idea of growing their own flowers, fruit and vegetables from the very beginning.

Take care of your plants with water daily. Once they are fully grown children feel a sense of accomplishment and achievement. This is fantastic for their self development, well being, confidence and health.

Growing your own fruit and vegetables is not only very exciting for children but it is a real driver for change in a child’s diet. Imagine your child being able to grow their own fruit and vegetables then eat them, what an incredible achievement for them. This helps with combating obesity, helps keep your child’s body healthy by filling them with nutrition and vitamins

At Mellowes we help children understand everything from the very beginning to the very end in a very easy and simple way that your child will absolutely love.

Flora and Fauna

Sensory garden

The children’s garden and grow tunnel at Mellowes are places where children can explore, see, feel, smell and touch flowers and herbs that grow at the centre. Being able to see and touch our fruit and vegetables children become familiar with all of these natural things in nature

Our garden hosts flowers and plants that attract birds, bees, butterflies, caterpillars, bugs and a whole host of wildlife. Children at the centre are active with projects that encourage the fauna of birds and other wildlife forms into the children’s garden.

Our garden is very popular with children with special needs children who derive a sense of relaxation, stimulation and a sense of physical connection to the world around us.

Children with needs love to feel, smell and look at things and there are lots of ways they can do this in the garden. By doing this these children are able to become relaxed and calm. All of these important aspects have been implemented in the garden and influenced the development of our mature children’s garden

Fairy garden

This is the biggest secret at Mellowes. Children are asked to look out in the garden, grow tunnel, and other areas where the fairies might be living or hiding. It is believed that fairies come out at night to weed the flower beds and put them onto the compost heap.

Fairies are responsible for watering our flowers, fruit and vegetables. They really do exist and we believe children have a very special connection with fairies. We also believe that it might be possible that a fairy could appear from one of their houses. Children are asked to keep their eyes wide open while in the garden and to let other children around them know if they spot a fairy.

Our fairies are very fussy and hard working. We are trying to find out who sweeps the paths in the middle of the night and why some of the flower pots get moved during the night while children are sleeping in their beds.

For a long time now cut grass and leaves have been appearing on the compost lair and we believe that fairies are hard at work tending to the garden while everyone is sleeping. Despite our best efforts we have been unable to spot the fairies.

Our grow tunnel is always clean and in great shape so the children can enjoy learning how to care about the environment along with how to grow their own flowers, fruit and vegetables. We believe that fairies are responsible for this

There are secrets in making our compost and only the fairies truly know what is going on with the magical ways you can make your own compost so it can be used to grow your own flowers, fruit and vegetables.  At Mellowes we feel we understand these magical ways and share the secrets with all the boy’s and girl’s believing it is a message the fairies wish to share.

The gnomes that are in the garden protect the fairy houses that have been built by the fairy community and great care should be taken to make sure no damage or harm is done to houses or all the decorations that are in the garden.

Gnomes report back each night to the chief gnome about the number of children that visit the garden, they give reports about the children that have been nice and friendly when they visit the children’s garden.

Our chief gnome asks all groups that visit the garden to leave their fingerprints on the magical fairy tree in the centre of the garden. Chief gnome asks group leaders to report to the main office where they can get help to do this activity.