High School Wins National Garden Competition
Added at 10:26 on 10 December 2023
Selkirk High School has been awarded a top prize of £1,000 in the national Cultivation Street competition, given to the school that has best involved children to create an inspirational garden.
The High School has planted more than 1,000 trees and created an outdoor classroom, featuring picnic benches, mixed native hedgerow, wild flowers, bird feeders, fruit trees and a living willow arbour. Selkirk came ahead of runners up from Brighton and Ilkeston, Derbyshire, while other contenders represented communities as geographically diverse as Hertfordshire, Huddersfield and Somerset.
Student Callum Mann said, “I feel relaxed and happy when I am gardening and I have grown in confidence.” Founder David Domoney said, “Selkirk [is] a brilliant example of a thriving school garden which benefits not just pupils but the wider community too.”
Inspired by a local street’s lights and decorations, David Domoney created Cultivation Street, intending that cultivated gardens could pull people together in the same way.
Originally conceived as a front garden campaign, it expanded to include community gardening projects, neighbourhood schemes and school gardens. David joined forces with national newspapers to involve ordinary people, who in many cases have never gardened before.
For more information about Cultivation Street, please go to https://cultivationstreet.com