PUPILS at Sidemoor First School in Bromsgrove have created a special Shakespeare garden in honour of the 400th anniversary since the playwright's death.

More than 300 children grabbed a pitchfork and trowel this week for a themed garden to be displayed in a competition at the Royal Horticultural Society's annual Spring Festival.

Sian Farrel, a year one teacher at Sidemoor First, said: "“The pupils chose Midsummer Night’s Dream because it divides into two worlds, Athens and the fairy world, and we’re dividing these by a stream. We’ve grown all the plants named directly by him in the play like cowslips, oxlips, and violets – and even catnip to represent the magic.

“The children have woven a wicker fence which would have been used in Elizabethan gardens at the time, and a willow arch with honeysuckle. We’ve got tulips which were introduced to England around the time of Shakespeare’s death 400 years ago.

“Our Greek temple will also be a ‘bug hotel’, and we’ve done a production of the play in school. Every one of the 345 children will have had a hand in the garden one way or another: painting, planting, gardening, sowing and creating. The children came up with the designs and they’re sewing owls and other animals to represent the woodland life in the story."

11 schools from the Midlands have entered the competition, sponsored by BAM, where awards will be given out by Alan Titchmarsh.

The Spring Festival will run from Thursday, May 5 to Sunday, May 8 and the gardens will be re-assembled back in their schools once the competition has finished.