Ullapool Primary School pocket garden wins special commendation
Issued by Keep Scotland Beautiful
Keep Scotland Beautiful recognises excellent design and garden
Pupils from Ullapool Primary School have been commended for their excellent efforts in a nationwide competition run by environmental charity, Keep Scotland Beautiful to design and grow a Pocket Garden.
Children, from as young as three, were challenged to design a colourful and sustainable garden that could feature at the Scottish Gardens Show at Scone Palace in late May. Sadly, the show was cancelled due to Covid restrictions. However, the entrants grew and built their gardens to be showcased online.
Ullapool Primary School submitted an excellent design, including a fishing boat planter full of spinach and rocket and a lighthouse doubling as a planter for strawberries and chives. The judges commented, ‘This garden makes great use of the vertical surfaces as growing spaces. Different plants thrive in different conditions and this garden demonstrates a good understanding of which plants will work well in each of the spaces here. The attention to detail is inspiring and the amazing pebble art elevates the beach element to create a garden full of artistry’.
All gardens connected to one of four interlinked 2021 themes - The Year of Coasts and Waters, One Planet Picnic, Wildlife Gardening and Celebrating Nature on our Doorstep. Certificates of Achievement were presented to five schools for excellence in the translation from design to garden. In addition to Ullapool Primary School they were: Meldrum Academy, Aberdeenshire; Applegarth & Hutton Primary School, Dumfries & Galloway; Whinhill Primary School, Inverclyde; and Glenlyon Primary School, Perth and Kinross.
This is the sixth Pocket Garden competition and one of the silver linings of the setbacks caused by restrictions has been to bring the wonder of them to people in their homes via a screen. This has allowed so many people to enjoy and celebrate the inspiring ideas of young people across Scotland.
More than 7,500 people voted for their favourite Pocket Garden and every school that participated received a share of the vote, in what was an amazing showcase, supported online by young people and their schools and wider communities.
Eve Keepax, Education and Learning Officer at Keep Scotland Beautiful, said, “It has been inspiring to see the range of fantastic learning and teaching generated by designing and creating these Pocket Gardens. The children have shown imaginative and collaborative problem solving, practical application of ideas, resilience in facing challenges, as well as creating low-carbon, wildlife friendly gardens that are full of fun. In addition to all this quality education, there are corners in school grounds across Scotland that are brighter, better for wildlife, with some tasty things for us to eat.’
Anthony McCluskey, Chair of the Garden for Life Forum, who was involved in the judging, said, “We have been so impressed by the dedication of the schools and the children taking part in this competition. They have been able to design and create gardens that would stand out at any show, despite all of the challenges posed by the pandemic. The fact that all of the gardens provide both food for humans and shelter and food for wildlife shows that we can make more space for nature in our gardens while sustaining ourselves, and we hope that these gardeners of the future will continue to garden with wildlife in mind.”
The winning Pocket Gardens are all available to view in the digital showcase at www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/pocketgarden.