A Problem in the Green Garden

Not too far away from where you live is a wonderful herb garden. It is a tidy and colourful place to visit, with row on row of sweet-smelling herbs and in the centre of the garden is a tall green tree. This tree is a very special place because a Tree Sprite lives there, called Willow.

Willow liked to look after the herb garden, keeping it clean and tidy for all the visitors there. Sometimes the visitors brought picnics on sunny days and their children sang and played in the garden. After the visitors had gone, Willow liked to gather up any bits of paper and sweet wrappers that they left behind and he would put them in special recycling bins. Willow knew that the more paper that was saved and sent away to be recycled and made into new paper, the less trees would be cut down. Once a year, Willow got a visit from Glenda the Green Garden witch, a good witch whose job it was to make sure that all the green spaces were being looked after and cared for. Willow had three special elf friends who always helped him look after the garden and their names were Bundles, Sweeper and Stacker. There were also two other elves who were always making mischief and their names were Greedy and Graspy and sometimes they would come and make a mess in the garden, throwing sweet wrappers everywhere and chucking their empty fizzy pop cans into the pond. Sometimes this would make Willow very sad but a fairy called Tiny who lived in the bottom of the garden would sing to him and cheer him up, whilst Bundles, Sweeper and Stacker helped clear up.

One cold day in winter Willow decided he would visit another Tree Sprite called Ash who lived in another garden nearby. Bundles, Sweeper and Stacker all went together with Willow to see their friend. While they were out, Greedy and Graspy crept into the herb garden and had a big elf party. The party lasted all day and all night and when it was over they went straight to bed in a pile of leaves and didn’t bother to tidy up. When Willow and the others got back they found a huge mess – paper, bottles, cardboard and plastic from the party were scattered everywhere all over the garden and Greedy and Graspy were fast asleep on their pile of leaves. Willow woke the elves up and told them that if they were going to visit the garden, then they had to help tidy up and sort out the paper and the bottles for the recycling, but Greedy and Graspy said they wouldn’t help and they didn’t care about the garden and there was nothing that anyone could do about it. Then the two elves ran away all the way back to the old oak tree down by the river where there lived with a very, very old elf who sometimes cast magical spells that made the weather turn bad.

Now Willow had a big problem, Greedy and Graspy were not going to help but they would keep on visiting the herb garden and making a mess! He asked Bundles and Sweeper and Slacker to think about what they could do and whilst they were thinking, a little robin went to wake up Tiny and tell her that they needed her help with some special magic before the Green Garden Witch came back to see if the herb garden was being looked after properly.




This opening chapter was created with the help of Year 2/3 St. Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, Newcastle upon Tyne who helped launch theGreenStory at Benwell Nature Park on Thursday 17th January. With the help of Glenda the Green Garden Witch they’ve started the story and set the ball rolling, but now it’s up to you and continue the story!

Monday, 21st January 2008 by St Josephs Catholic Primary School, aged 7