Spring can’t come soon enough for school and community gardeners who collected over 300 free garden tools from the Eden Project thanks to Tools Shed, The Conservation Foundation’s tool recycling project run in association with Dartmoor Prison.

For more than seven years HMP Dartmoor has been working with The Foundation to refurbish broken and unwanted garden tools collected from the Eden Project, garden centres and recycling depots. It is one of six prisons taking part in the project, which is funded by the Big Lottery.

The Conservation Foundation’s Jack Narbed welcomed 13 schools and community groups to the Eden Project. He said: ‘The Eden Project was our very first collection point and now broken tools can be left at nine places in the region, from Bristol to St Austell. Our grant from the Big Lottery Reaching Communities Fund has allowed us to reach even more schools and community groups and give offenders an opportunity to give back to their local community, while learning valuable new skills.’

For more information about Tools Shed, where to drop off broken tools and for an invitation to a local giveaway, visit www.conservationfoundation.co.uk/tools