STRONG community ties in Alloa have paid dividends for youngsters at Kidz World Nursery.

The playground at the Kelliebank nursery has been given a bit of sprucing up with help from by Clacksfirst BID and Houston Gardening Services.

As well as brightening the place up, kids were also able to get involved in planting their own fruit and vegetables.

Clacksfirst and Houston Gardening Services are always working on projects, such as maintaining planters, grass-cutting, hedge-trimming and salt spreading during winter, to support Wee County businesses in the Clacksfirst BID area.

Kidz World approached the BID to enquire if there was anything that could be done to help brighten up their playground while giving the children the experience of planting something and seeing it grow from the earth.

Kevin Deighan, manager at Clacksfirst BID said: "Nicola called to ask if we could help with additional planters and plants for the nursery to help the children understand how nature works and plants grow.

"I thought it was a great idea so we contacted Peter Houston, our gardening contractor, who said he would be delighted to help."

Clacksfirst BID arranged a visit to Kidz World for Houston Gardening Services in order to assess what space was available and what would be of greater interest to the children.

Peter added: "I am a great believer in supporting the community where I can and to be able to help the children understand and appreciate how things grow made this a particularly easy decision for me."

Houston Gardening Services donated several planters with compost as well as daffodils and pansies for the children to plant.

An added benefit could be a positive introduction to fruit and vegetables as the children will be planting potato, carrot, lettuce and tomato seeds too.

Nicola Wilson, Kidz World manager, said: "We thank Clacksfirst BID and Houston Gardening Services for their support.

"Peter was great and has gifted a lot of very useful resources for our children to use and learn from.

"Our nursery is very grateful for this and our children are very excited to plant our fruits and vegetables and watch them grow.

"They will spend time learning and preparing to plant all our new seeds."