The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Students shaping up
This year marks the 20th anniversary of arguably the biggest event on the Scottish Gardening Calendar. Julianne Robertson meets some of the horticulture students creating a new feature for this special anniversary show
It’s the 20th anniversary of a big event in the gardening calendar.
Established in 1999 by the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society to give Scotland an annual gardening show of its own, Gardening Scotland has grown from a small collection of pallet gardens and floral exhibits into the large-scale and popular lifestyle event it is today. It’s a showcase for designers and nurseries, a place to meet the experts, and a marketplace for new and popular outdoor living products. In short, it’s the place to go if you’re into gardening – whether you have the greenest of fingers, or simply enjoy it from the comfort of a deckchair!
This year, there’s a special focus on new and upcoming talent, with the introduction of College Street – a series of show gardens created by local horticultural students from the Edinburgh, Elmwood and Oatridge campuses of SRUC (Scotland’s Rural College). Each team has been asked to find a solution for that tricky growing space between the house and the street, providing kerb appeal using plants, paving or pots and a theme of their own choice.
Jackie Wood and Ruth Mackie are on the HNC Horticulture course at SRUC Elmwood and they’re part of a team designing a sustainable, make-do-and-mend post-war
“Victory” garden featuring vegetables and flowers and a replica Anderson shelter. Jackie already has some experience of Gardening Scotland, having designed a show garden last year too.
She says: “I absolutely loved it! It’s a great atmosphere and really builds your confidence. This year everyone’s got different skills, we’re coming up with new ideas, and working hard to source plants – it’s great to see it all coming together.”
Ruth can’t wait to take part in this year’s event, which is her first experience of building a garden from the ground up.
She points out that while the show gardens are judged by a panel during the event, it doesn’t form any part of their formal college assessment: “It’s completely optional but we all jumped at the opportunity – even though it’s around exam time! We’re happy to make time to do it.”
The full details of each plot are closelyguarded secrets, but the teams have chosen diverse themes for their gardens and planning is at an advanced stage. The project gives the students the chance to experience what it’s like to create an entire garden, from drawing the design, propagating their own plants, meeting suppliers and sourcing materials, to the final stage of laying out and building the finished product.
“What I see in them is an immense boost in confidence”, says Heather Munro who’s a lecturer at SRUC’s Elmwood campus in Cupar, and has no doubt about the benefits for the students of taking part in this challenge. “When they’ve done a garden and see thousands of people walking past and admiring it – I see their chests puffing up and their confidence growing. That’s the number one benefit.”
She’s delighted to see so many students take up this opportunity, which can give also them a foot in the door: “It’s a great introduction to different people in the horticultural industry and the students may even find some work through the connections they make. It’s so helpful – you never know who you will meet again in the Scottish gardening community.”
Ann Burns, board member of Gardening Scotland, says they wanted to come up with a theme which would test the students, but also
When they’ve done a garden and see thousands of people walking past and admiring it – that’s the number one benefit
reflect the celebratory tone of this year’s event: “We’ve given the students the same brief, they’ve all got the same backdrop, but it always amazes me how they will all choose completely different ideas. As it’s the 20th anniversary year, we’re hoping for a real party vibe on College Street! We came up with the idea of designing real, working front gardens because we want them to be relatable and for the public to come and look at them and take away some great ideas – to feel it’s something they could easily create for themselves.”