Garden with room for forces children to grow

A NEW garden has been opened to help the children of Scotland's soldiers cope with their parents being at war.

The Room to Grow garden at Colinton Primary School in Edinburgh has taken three years of planning and planting.

The school is near both Dreghorn and Redford barracks and almost 90 per cent of the children there have a parent serving in the Armed Forces.

The garden is designed to give the children somewhere to go and be alone, providing tranquillity throughout the trauma of their parents' absence.

One of the parents at the launch was Mairi Rowan, whose sons Alan, nine, and Kyle, eight, go to the school. She said the garden was something that the children needed.

She added: "This is just amazing. They have got the freedom to choose what they want to do here, depending on how they are feeling.

"My husband is in the army. He's been away to Iraq over the years and I know how hard it is as a wife and as a mother. You realise how important this kind of thing is for the kids."