Published at 13:42, Tuesday, 12 June 2012
STUDENTS from three South Cumbrian schools excelled in a garden design competition.
Barrow schools Dane Ghyll and Greengate Junior School and Haverigg Primary School all scooped prizes in the Wonderful Wildflower Meadows Competition, which was set-up by the North-West Evening Mail in conjunction with Holker Hall and Gardens and Crooklands Home and Garden Centre.
The Evening Mail asked primary school classes to design their own mini wildflower meadow, which would attract bees, butterflies and other pollinating creatures, as part of the activities for the 20th Holker Garden Festival.
The project aimed to get pupils thinking about ecology and the environment.
A panel of judges was made up of Sarah Ross, Holker Garden Festival director, Marc Charnley, the owner of Crooklands Home and Garden Centre, Dalton, and Lesley Stretton, of the new Drama Hub group in Ulverston, who came up with this year’s theme of a wildflower meadow.
They shortlisted three entries to go forward to the festival and these were exhibited at this weekend’s festival. Vouchers for Crooklands Home and Garden Centre worth £500 were split between the winning schools.
The top prize went to Dane Ghyll, with pupils from Year Four designing a creative garden with a jubilee theme.
Teacher Scott Macmillan said: “We have a garden in the school that the children go out in every week in the summer. All the garden produce gets used in the school meals.
“The kids really enjoyed taking part. We went out on a walk to How Tun Woods to research flowers and give them ideas for the project.”
The school plans to use the vouchers to buy new supplies and plants for the garden.
Second prize went to Haverigg Primary for 10-year-old Alexandria Lowery’s natural flower garden and Greengate pupils earned third place for their design, which included a 3D model.
Ms Ross said the judges were very impressed with the creativity of the submissions.
She said: “The winning entry had originality and integrating the Union flag as a flower bed was a clever idea. We thought it was a very special design and it fulfilled the criteria as well.”
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk
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