During the past few weeks I've been fortunate enough to have been teaching a 'Skills for Work' group in the North West Regional College. I think this is one of the best courses a youngster can go on, its aimed at under 18's, and offers the student a full-time course in the tech which lets them experience some brickwork, horticulture, tiling, joinery, painting, plumbing, electrics....in truth all craft skills, from this they can then decide which interests them most and then move onto that in their second year...during our time together we transformed a long-forgotten about courtyard into a fantastic garden space....here is some pics....

laying out all the joist frames in the workshop

cutting all the deckign boards to fit the sections

installing some ballast ontop of the weedblock fabric

bring each section up and then once positioned screwed them all together

after ballast and mebrane then fit the decking boards

areas not decked, weedblock fabric and mulched with gravel

big stones we found amongst old plants left as 'aged' pieces for feature

off cuts used to make chunky planter boxes

boxes all in place and planted up with sweet william and pansys (all grown on site)

the scented sweet williams should full the whole garden with fragrance all next summer