Keep Scotland Beautiful (KSB) has launched their 2024 Pocket Garden Competition, where young people (aged 3 – 18 years old) are invited to design pocket-sized gardens via their schools and nurseries.
KSB is also holding a “Meet the Mentors” twilight session next Wednesday 17th January from 4pm for teachers and educators whose class would like to take part in the competition. The session will be held online via Teams; places can be booked on the KSB website (linked for your convenience).
Background
A Pocket Garden is a miniature garden using edible plants, plants which attract wildlife, and reuses something which would otherwise have been thrown away. With a 2024 theme of “Nature’s Engineers”, the competition links garden design, sustainability and engineering in the natural world, from burrows to nests, and nature’s influence on human technology.
Each year, KSB invites young people from schools and nurseries across Scotland to send in their designs for a colourful and exciting environmentally friendly, pocket-sized garden. Pupils who send in the winning designs are then invited to build and grow their gardens to display.
Previously, Pocket Gardens have been displayed at Gardening Scotland in Edinburgh, where they have been visited by the BBC Beechgrove Garden team, Scottish Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform, and the Lord Provost of Edinburgh.
Last years’ winning designs, transformed into real gardens, can be seen in the online Pocket Garden 2023 showcase.
Competition Deadline and Timeline
The deadline for Pocket Garden Competition entries is 5pm on Friday 23rd February.
Timeline:
- week commencing Monday 26th February: competition winners will be notified and can begin to grow and build their garden
- 5pm on Wednesday 5th June – the winning schools’ deadline for images and words showing their finished gardens
- 9am Friday 14th June – 9am Monday 24th June – a national online showcase and public voting on the final gardens
Further Information
For further information, including the competition brochure, information on the theme, top tips for planting and growing, and activities for home or school, please visit the dedicated Pocket Garden Competition page.
Alternatively, for further information or support, contact:
- the competition team by email: pocketgarden@keepscotlandbeautiful.org
- Eve Keepax, Senior Officer for Education and Learning, by email:keepax@keepscotlandbeautiful.org
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