MALMESBURY Garden Centre have donated compost, vermiculite and horticultural fleece to the students at the Lakeside Care Farm at the Lower Moor Farm nature reserve.

Dean Sherwin, manager of the Lakeside Care Farm said: “The materials will be used to increase the opportunities for the students to work ‘seed to harvest’, for example, the compost will enable us to sow seeds and nurture them through their growing cycle until they are ready to harvest.

"The students will then either have the opportunity to take the produce home or to cook a meal together at the farm.

"Seeing through such an activity from start to finish fosters an appreciation of life-cycles and creates an understanding of food production. A sense of responsibility is formed, in that if the seeds and resultant plants aren't cared for then, quite simply, they will die.

"The horticultural fleece with be used to protect plants during the vulnerable time of late spring when rural areas, like Lower Moor Farm, may still experience grass frosts.”