Medicinal
Herb Garden Project 2011
When the
Stratford Centre for Herbal Medicine, based in East London, wanted to build
their own medicinal herb garden, they turned to WoodBlocX to provide a flexible and
practical solution.
The Stratford Centre for Herbal Medicine, which is
part of the University of East London, offers high quality Western herbal
medicine to the public and is also a hub for herbal medicine education at the
university, providing clinical training for the BSc in Herbal
Medicine.
Martin Logue, clinical supervisor at the Stratford Centre, is
passionate about getting his students to grow their own herbs, so that they get
real hands on experience and hence a more rounded education. He and his
colleague, James Freeman, launched a competition in November 2010, in which
students were asked to design a functional medicinal herb garden.
The
winning design, which includes the use of WoodBlocX, is now about a third of the
way through in its construction and is due for completion at the end of July
2011.
Situated
to the rear of the Clinical Education building, at the Stratford campus, the new
herb garden is around 200m² in size.
Martin recognised that any building
system used would need to be flexible, due to the uneven layout of the area and
the curves involved. In addition, the students did not necessarily have great
DIY skills, so the system would need to be simple to install. Hence traditional
methods of raised beds, such as railway sleepers were discounted as too unwieldy
and heavy and they also contained unsuitable preservatives.
“WoodBlocX certainly fitted the bill here”
said Martin. “They are an ideal alternative to sleepers, especially as they are
easy to piece together, and are not as cumbersome. We have found them easy to
assemble, even in the tricky areas. The key has been to establish a good
foundation and overlap them at the corners. They have proved to be cost
effective too, as we had a total budget of £25k for the whole project, so we
have had to be careful on the cost front. We have planned to make at least six
raised beds, possibly more as the project develops”.
“The WoodBlocX team have bent over backwards
to help us and have been very supportive and creative indeed” he
added.
Expert herbalist, Jekka Mc Vika, who runs a specialist organic
herbs nursery is also a great advocate of the project and it is hoped that she
will be able to provide stock and attend the grand opening at the end of
July.
Stratford Centre for Herbal Medicine, based in East London, wanted to build
their own medicinal herb garden, they turned to WoodBlocX to provide a flexible and
practical solution.
The Stratford Centre for Herbal Medicine, which is
part of the University of East London, offers high quality Western herbal
medicine to the public and is also a hub for herbal medicine education at the
university, providing clinical training for the BSc in Herbal
Medicine.
Martin Logue, clinical supervisor at the Stratford Centre, is
passionate about getting his students to grow their own herbs, so that they get
real hands on experience and hence a more rounded education. He and his
colleague, James Freeman, launched a competition in November 2010, in which
students were asked to design a functional medicinal herb garden.
The
winning design, which includes the use of WoodBlocX, is now about a third of the
way through in its construction and is due for completion at the end of July
2011.
Situated
to the rear of the Clinical Education building, at the Stratford campus, the new
herb garden is around 200m² in size.
Martin recognised that any building
system used would need to be flexible, due to the uneven layout of the area and
the curves involved. In addition, the students did not necessarily have great
DIY skills, so the system would need to be simple to install. Hence traditional
methods of raised beds, such as railway sleepers were discounted as too unwieldy
and heavy and they also contained unsuitable preservatives.
“WoodBlocX certainly fitted the bill here”
said Martin. “They are an ideal alternative to sleepers, especially as they are
easy to piece together, and are not as cumbersome. We have found them easy to
assemble, even in the tricky areas. The key has been to establish a good
foundation and overlap them at the corners. They have proved to be cost
effective too, as we had a total budget of £25k for the whole project, so we
have had to be careful on the cost front. We have planned to make at least six
raised beds, possibly more as the project develops”.
“The WoodBlocX team have bent over backwards
to help us and have been very supportive and creative indeed” he
added.
Expert herbalist, Jekka Mc Vika, who runs a specialist organic
herbs nursery is also a great advocate of the project and it is hoped that she
will be able to provide stock and attend the grand opening at the end of
July.
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