Search is on for young garden designers

YOUNGSTERS from Moray are being encouraged to design a garden which could feature as part of a national horticultural showcase.

Environmental charity Keep Scotland Beautiful is behind the Pocket Garden Competition, with the winner featuring at Gardening Scotland this summer.

Schools are invited to create exciting and unusual designs that use plants that attract wildlife, edible plants, and that reuse something which would otherwise have been thrown away.

Eve Keepax, Keep Scotland Beautiful's food and environment officer, said: "Our annual Pocket Garden Competition is a practical and fun way for pupils to learn about food, the environment and biodiversity, as well as developing their creative design skills. Now in its fifth year, the competition has inspired schools from 30 of Scotland’s 32 local authority areas to take part.

"We have seen schools produce fantastic designs full of clever surprises with innovative ideas. I hope that many more young people will participate this year."

By taking part children are challenged to consider and learn about the environment in a fun, hands on and informal manner.

This year's themes include: Wildlife Gardening, One Planet Picnic, Keep Scotland Beautiful’s 20th birthday or the Year of Coasts and Waters 2020.

Anthony McCluskey, chair of the Garden for Life Forum, added: "We are looking forward to seeing how schoolchildren meet the design challenge again this year, especially as our coasts and inland waters are such inspirational places. It’s more important than ever that we help wildlife in our gardens and grow our own food sustainably, and these designs can help in a small way to address the problems our planet is facing."

Schools are invited to submit their entries no later than March 11 and you can visit www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/pocketgarden for further information.

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