Last week I completed the building of a music garden space for Piddletrenthide School near Dorchester. This project was initiated by the school who applied for funds from LTL (educational charity called Learning Through Landscapes) to add several new features to their grounds: 1) willow sculpture, 2) activity trail and 3) a music garden. I met with the school council back in April and we discussed what they would like and the layout. I came up with a design and finally built it over 2 days last week (6/7/July). The children helped by painting the tuned drainpipes and making the padded bats to play them (the coloured long tubes in photo) and the making the drum sticks for the saucepan bongos (lefthandside in the photo). The ballcock maracas were filled and decorated by the children. The tubular bells completes the range of instruments. The children decided on this layout so that the conductor would stand in the opening (left corner on photo) in order to see and direct all the players who stand on the outer edge of all the instruments. First reactions to the completed project were very positive and with care it will give them many years of fun. This fun and creative music garden is on a 5 metre square of bark and wood chips.