GARDENING broadcaster Alan Titchmarsh will open a new learning centre in the area this week, to help thousands more children get growing.

The new Peter Buckley Learning Centre at RHS Garden Rosemoor will help thousands more schoolchildren in the region learn about sustainability, the environment, wildlife and plants.

The building, named in memory of the late RHS president, Peter Buckley, will be opened tomorrow (Friday).

The building will be used by primary and secondary schools, adult learners, trainees and for family events, attracting an estimated 7,000 schoolchildren a year.

In addition to two large classrooms for formal teaching, the centre includes an innovative teaching terrace garden, with raised vegetable beds, a sensory garden and dipping ponds, enabling hands-on horticultural experience for pupils and teachers. An indoor practical space and cooking area will be used to teach children how to prepare the food they learn to grow.

The centre has been designed to be eco-friendly utilising solar energy, rainwater harvesting and an efficient log burning boiler, using logs from the woodlands around RHS Garden Rosemoor, and allowing the building to be self-sufficient.

The land surrounding the new centre will be developed over the coming months, to provide additional learning opportunities for both visitors and schools, including a forest garden with low maintenance planting, which will produce fruits, berries and perennial vegetables.