The project’s initiators and creators write about their work:
It was then that class 5a, together with its homeroom teacher, Monika Grygorcewicz, organized a school St. Andrew’s Day event, from which the impressive proceeds (PLN 3,215) were entirely donated to the “Klekusiowo” Wild Animal Centre.
A pleasant surprise was receiving a gift from Klekusiowo—a token of appreciation consisting of 20 insect hotels. They required not only installation during the approaching summer season, but above all the creation of suitable living conditions for their inhabitants. This is how the idea of creating a “wild garden” was born.
Good intentions alone, however, were not enough. We needed appropriate funding—and a substantial amount, considering the scale of the work involved. Once again, class 5a, under the direction of its homeroom teacher, organized a school event, this time the “Spring Fair”, which added variety to the celebration of the first day of spring.
By selling their own baked goods and lottery prizes, as well as providing various services such as braiding hair and face painting, they raised PLN 2,852. This made it possible to purchase gardening tools, fencing, paint, seedlings and many other items needed to create the garden.
The first work began at the start of April and involved not only very intensive physical effort, but also giving up free time—usually 1.5–2 hours every day. Digging out several tonnes of sandy or clay soil to create flower beds and filling them with fertile soil was a real challenge. Older students from the “Kuźnia Talentów” Polish studies club came to help. Volunteers from classes taught by Monika also turned up to paint the fencing or plant trees late into the evening. The advice provided by our support staff members also proved extremely helpful and valuable. Sometimes it was not just advice, but active participation in the gardening work as well, along with “green gifts” in the form of plant seedlings.
The maintenance workers also offered their help and tools. Through everyone’s combined efforts, the “wild garden” was ready for its opening. Most importantly, it is already home to winged residents. The first were mason bees, which settled into their new home very well. Today, the “wild garden” is also inhabited by bumblebees, ladybirds and butterflies. All these animals are a treasure of nature and great allies of humans, as pollinating insects they perform extremely useful work. Some of them, such as ladybirds, are also natural “destroyers” of harmful aphids. Thanks to them, we do not expose plants to devastating chemicals. For this and other reasons, it is our duty to protect this valuable corner known as the “wild garden” and continually raise ecological awareness among students. We hope that ecology lessons conducted in this way—combining children’s participation in physical work with observation and the theoretical knowledge provided—will produce tangible results in the form of responsible attitudes towards the environment. We all understand perfectly well how high a priority this issue is today.