Garden design reaches final

PUPILS at Gigha Primary School are off to the Gardening Scotland exhibition in June because a garden they designed has reached the final of a national competition.

The youngsters designed the island in miniature, complete with its rocky coast, beaches and buildings.

Dunoon Grammar School has also reached the final. The environmental charity, Keep Scotland Beautiful announced the schools’ success after they were selected as winners of the nationwide Design a One Planet Picnic Pocket Garden competition.

The charity invited eco-schools from across Scotland to enter the competition, with pupils being asked to design a colourful and exciting pallet or pocket-sized garden that included plants for humans, plants for wildlife and which represented Scotland’s history and heritage.

The winning schools, selected by members of the Garden for Life Forum, will now go on to plant and grow their winning designs which will form the Living Garden feature at the Gardening Scotland exhibition this June at the Royal Highland Centre in Edinburgh.

The eco-schools programme is the largest sustainable schools programme in the world. It is operated internationally by the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) and in Scotland by Keep Scotland Beautiful.

There are currently 3,748 schools registered with the programme in Scotland, which supports Learning for Sustainability and in doing so encourages children to keep Scotland clean, green and more sustainable, so the tiny island school can be rightly proud of its success in reaching the final.

The older pupils will be travelling to the event to plant up their garden design.