Tame wild leylandii with a lasting chop

Nicki, Chesterfield, Derbyshire DAViD: The main pruning for your leylandii should happen from April to August. About three cuts during this period will keep it under control. You can still give a final trim to evergreen hedges at this time of year so it will stay shapely over winter. It’s also a good opportunity to trim them narrower at the top, to protect from snow damage. from wheelchairs or standing aids. Large pictorial plant labelling is used in a style students are familiar with, while tools have been adapted – for example, giant funnels for filling pots, drainpipes for planting potatoes and flexible tree protectors as tubes to drop smaller seeds or bulbs.

A clay pizza oven has been built to cook produce grown in the garden. Youngsters love the school hens, who provide eggs and endless pleasure.

The 15 outdoor raised beds, four ground level plots and four polytunnel beds contain a mix of permanent planting – soft fruit, hops, herbs and annual vegetables and flowers, as well as a number of dwarf stock fruit trees.

The fresh fruit and veg is eaten or sold, with much being made into jams and chutneys during colder months. The flowers grown are used to brighten up offices and shared spaces.

Redwood Park will use their prize to make the garden even better.

Ed Bond, horticulture teacher, said: “It feels great to win. To share the success of our young gardeners is fantastic. The students are excited to have won, they loved the attention, the prize and the chance to be in the paper. We will invest in tools and