Young gardeners pick up floral award

Pupils from Kinlochleven Primary school have proved they have green fingers by being awarded a silver gilt medal by the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society at the recent Gardening Scotland event at Ingleston.

The children had submitted an entry in the Pallet Garden Challenge which involved designing and creating a garden that was one metre square. The
school decided to incorporate their house colours in the design, green, red, blue and yellow plus the purole on the school sweatshirts.

Aaron Hartley, P7; Tyler Murphy, P5 and Bethany Duff, P3 visited the show with Learning Support Auxiliary, Jeanette Johnstone and were delighted to discover their garden had won an award. Their excitement was furthered when First Minister Alex Salmond came to speak to them and ask questions about the project.

Aaron, Tyler and Bethany also took the opportunity to visit other gardens and exhibitions to get some ideas on ways to make their school grounds more attractive to insects, bees and butterflies, including looking at ways to help the animals over the winter months.

Head teacher Mrs Allan said: "This is the first time we have entered the competition so to get a silver gilt award is a huge achievement and I am very proud of everyone involved. Gardening is part our school's citizenship programme and we have set up a group which meets fortnightly but, to be honest, many of the children can be seen gardening most lunchtimes as well. We look forward to using some of the children's newly acquired design and planting skills to entice more wildlife into our grounds so we can learn more about how these animals live throughout the year."