Great green ideas: two new gardens designed for families, easy access, bbq, vegetable growing and food recycling

In Nottingham, a family-friendly garden has been opened at Mayholme Teenage Parent Accommodation, run by charity Family First. The garden has been cultivated and re-designed to provide a tranquil oasis for young parents and their children.

The garden has been landscaped to provide an accessible pathway for pushchairs and wheelchairs and includes a new childrens play area and sandpit, a barbeque, sensory area and seating.

There is also a vegetable patch and compost bins to enable residents to grow their own vegetables and recycle waste food.

 In London, Akhil Amlani, the 17 year old winner of Defra's 2007/08 Climate Change Champions competition for London, has used the £1,000 prize money he received, to create an ecological garden area at the Queen Elizabeth Boys School in Barnet.

The eco garden has been created on previously unused ground at the school, to help the environment and assist in educating students on climate change. Akhil and his friend Ashley-James Turner designed the garden together, focussing on the key environmental principles of reduce, reuse and recycle.

This has been reflected in the garden by using British grown drought-resistant plants that require little water; solar energy lighting; and recycled materials, including slate. The garden also incorporates organic soil and a pond to create a new eco system that can be supported naturally.

In addition, a solar-powered weather station has been installed to monitor changes in the local climate over time, running completely from sunlight on the south facing school roof. This will enable geography students to measure and record wind speed, wind direction, air temperature, air humidity, rainfall levels, air pressure, light intensity and hours of sunshine per day. The station will soon to be linked to a computer system, via wireless network, to allow graphs and forecast diagrams to be created.

Work to renovate the garden was undertaken by Akhil and his student friends Ashley-James Turner, Kishen Patel and Xi Chen, and took over four days. They have used their own spare time to lay slate, create bedding areas, complete planting and regenerate the pond to attract wildlife. To encourage birds into the garden, they have installed a hi-tec solar-powered birdbath, a bird feeder and nesting box.

In Nottingham, Senior Service Manager at Family First, Carmen Barnes, said: 'The new garden is looking fantastic, there is so much more for residents and their children to enjoy now.

Family First is part of the LHA-ASRA housing and regeneration group. As well as providing accommodation for teenage parents and mental health services, it also is a landlord to 300 homes in Nottingham and collects and recycles unwanted furniture to people in need.