Ladysmith Junior School in Exeter has won first prize in The Salvage Garden’ competition. Organised by Devon Wildlife Trust and sponsored by St. Bridget Nurseries, the competition was open to all schools in Exeter as part of the Exeter Wild City project. The aim was to design and construct a small garden using items the school children had ‘salvaged’ and then create habitats using a variety of plants that would encourage wildlife into the garden.

Katie Richardson, Olivia Didon and Euan Gethin, all aged 10, scoured the school for things that were old, broken or no longer used. These included a teacher’s desk, chair, toilet, broken sports equipment and ancient items found gathering dust at the back of the science cupboard. The children used them to make a water feature, a mouse house, bird feeders and many different kinds of planters that were then filled with nectar-rich flowers and other plants that would attract a variety of wildlife.

Mrs Lynda Ewin, teaching assistant who supervised the project said: ‘The children had great fun sourcing all the items to form the basis of the garden. They were so enthusiastic and creative and the garden has generated so much interest from pupils, staff and parents who have watched a pile of junk being transformed into a vibrant, living structure.’

The school has won a behind-the-scenes tour of St. Bridget Nurseries for one class and each child will bring back a plant to further enhance the school grounds.
Paul Martin, DWT's Education Officer said: 'The imagination and creativity shown by all the children involved in the competition was fantastic. The winners displayed that extra spark and really made great use out of what they had to hand. This mix of recycling and wildlife gardening has clearly inspired the children to think about new ways of creating innovative spaces in their school grounds.'

Rose Tour Rose of the Year

We asked everyone who attended our rose tours last Friday and Saturday to vote for their favourite rose. Nearly everyone said 'It's so hard to choose'. Indeed it was a hard task to pick just one rose from our flourishing field of over a hundred varieties but there was a winner - the HT rose Lovely Lady (as pictured).

In close second place were Ballerina, Lilli Marlene and Eglantyne. There was a further 20 roses that also received votes!

Congratulations to R. Kelland who won the prize draw and their favourite rose Whisky Mac.

Bring bees and butterflies to your garden by planting some Buddleja's in your garden.

They come in a variety of colours pinks, purples blues and whites.

They are easy to grow and will thrive in poor soil so they will grow in virtually any garden soil.

Just prune back hard in early spring and you will get masses of flowers in July/ August.

Bees and butterflies love them so come along to one of St Bridget Nurseries garden centres and pick from the large range of varieties on sale priced at £7.15 each.

Judging is now complete...

I've just got back to the office from a morning visiting all the four finalists of this year's Salvage Garden Competition.

The brainchild of Paul Martin from Devon's Wildlife Trust, the project invited local schools to design and create a wildlife friendly garden using salvaged materials.

The children have been so creative and the ones we spoke to today were delightfully passionate and have clearly learnt an incredible amount from the work they have done.

For me the winner took the challenge to a whole new level but every finalist had something unique and exciting to offer.

I can't say who the finalists were or the winner until the official press release but I can say that I'm very excited to meet the winners again when they come to visit the nursery as their prize.

Further information on the project can be found here

Roses

June and July roses are generally looking at their best, St Bridget Nurseries grow a large selection including Floribunda's, HT's, Climbers, and Shrub roses .

On July 15th and 16th the rose fields will be open so customers will be able to view the roses in the field and pick the roses they would like when we start lifting from the field in November.

The roses are at our nursery at our Old Rydon Lane garden centre and the tours will be at 10.30am, 1.30pm and 3.00pm on both days.

Come and have a look Roses grown in Exeter.

For more details call 01392 873672.