Two north-east schools have won the chance to have their garden designs blossom into life after winning a national competition.
Pupils from the Charleston Primary School in Aberdeen and the Anna Ritchie School in Peterhead were selected from hundreds of entrants into Keep Scotland Beautiful’s Pocket Garden competition.
The pupils had been tasked with creating their own garden design that celebrated Scotland’s landscape, would be hospitable for local wildlife and include something for people to eat.
Judges announced the competition winners yesterday, with Charleston Primary and the Anna Ritchie School picking up gold alongside 22 other schools from across Scotland.
Eve Keepax, food and environment officer at Keep Scotland Beautiful, said: “It is clear that pupils have managed to get really excited and thought a lot about these issues – exploring the relationship between food, the environment and bio-diversity – all linking to our changing climate.
“We look forward to welcoming the pupils and staff from Charleston Primary School and the Anna Ritchie School to Gardening Scotland and seeing the transformation from design to garden, from page to plant.”
Charleston Primary and the Anna Ritchie School will now receive support and funding to see their design blossom into life in their school grounds.
In addition, the schools’ entries will form the central feature of the Garden for Life area at the Gardening Scotland show in Midlothian from May 31-June 2.
From the 24 winners selected to participate in the final feature, three final winners will be selected from the display, as best interpretation of the water themes, best for food for people and best for wildlife.
The winners will be selected by a panel of judges including representatives from Keep Scotland Beautiful and the Garden for Life Forum.
Anthony McCluskey, chairman of the Garden for Life Forum, said: “We need to adapt how we garden and grow food, so the competition this year is a chance for school children to engage with the ways in which climate change may affect Scotland.”