Kids hope to pocket prize for gardening
Pupils at a Perthshire primary school were thrilled to see their design was picked for the shortlist in a national garden design competition.
This year’s One Planet Pocket Picnic Garden competition run by Keep Scotland Beautiful suggested plenty of themes like 2021 The Year of Coasts and Waters, celebrating nature on your doorstep, and wildlife gardening to inspire garden design entries from all over the country.
Glenlyon Primary School, in the hills near Loch Tay and Ben Lawers, had water, wildlife and lots of nature on the doorstep which helped the small school come up with a winning design.
Their entry was geared towards attracting and feeding wildlife but also reusing waste - so they came up with a greenhouse made out of old plastic CD cases.
The children explained how it all came about: “We decided to enter The One Pocket Garden at the start of the term because our topic is biodiversity.
“Glenlyon is a long way from the coast, so our school focused on the waterways that are so important to glen life, including hydroelectric elements of the Lubreoch Dam and the wonderful, ancient Roman Bridge.
“We glued our picket fence and greenhouse together, then after we painted our fence green we left it to dry.
“Then we started to make the Roman Bridge out of Glenlyon rocks.
“One of our mentors who came to our school was a butterflies and bee expert. He talked to us about bees and we discovered there are 260 kinds of bees.”
The children were so impressed by a visit to the hydroelectric dam near Loch Lyon that they included a turning water wheel in their design which would generate enough power to make a light bulb glow.
“Our brief for the miniature garden was to use edible plants, attract wildlife and reuse something which would otherwise have been thrown away,” said head teacher Richard Brocklehurst.
“We love living and working in our beautiful, biodiverse Glen,
“There are such a range of creatures and plants here, often quite undisturbed.
“We believe that biodiversity is really important for many reasons.
“Recently our term topic was biodiversity - so it’s fabulous that the school’s entry won.
“We are just finishing the build of the mini garden. It feels like preparing for Chelsea Flower Show.
“The children’s task was made harder for being in May when things are only just starting to shoot.
“We had snow up the glen just recently at the start of the month.”
All the winning designs will be showcased in the Pocket Garden Display online and the public can choose an overall winner by voting from June 5-13.
The Perthshire school needs people to visit the digital showcase from June 5 and vote for its design at www. keepscotlandbeautiful.org/pocketgarden