Arley Garden Festival
Saturday 29th & Sunday 30th June 2024
All booked in, 14 schools! Alderman Bolton Primary School, Bowdon Preparatory School, Bright Futures Specialist Education School, Croft Primary School, Eccleston C of E Primary School, Grappenhall Heyes Community Primary School, Havannah Primary School, Lostock Gralam C of E Primary School, Middlewich Primary School, The Brow Community Primary School, The Russett School AREA Special Education, The Ryleys Preparatory School, Whitegate C of E Primary School, Winnington Park County Primary School.
As part of our annual Garden Festival, now in its 29th year, we invited primary school to take part in our Schools Gardening Challenge. 14 local schools are now involved with this initiative, and have worked with us from January until June to create a garden with their children.
Our aim is to encourage children to think and learn about the natural environment in which they live. Flowerbeds can include topics such as biology, geography, art/design, and conservation. Practical working skills and working together as a team will be important elements of this project.
This year the winner of our gardening challenge will win a raised flowerbed similar to the one used on the show days but slightly deeper and will enable more to be grown in it. Arley will deliver the flowerbed to the winning school the week after the festival along with 10 packs of compost. All the materials have been donated by Huws Gray Buildbase, Northwich and we are delighted they are once again sponsoring this part of the show.
Each school will also receive 10 adult and 10 child complimentary show entry tickets to be given to any staff, helpers or parents for their access on show days, they can only be used once.
Alongside the ‘official’ judging, which will take place at 10.30 on Saturday 29th June, and for which we really enjoy the children being present, we are also asking the public to vote by selecting their favourite flowerbed. Each visitor to the show will be given a token for them to vote for their favourite school, the winning school will receive a free child admission ticket to Arley for use during 2024.
We like the children to think about the different uses of plants in their gardens, understanding that plants can be grown not only as food but for colour and design purposes as well. Some plants can be both decorative and edible, i.e., red leaved lettuce, the yellow flowers on courgettes.
As part of this project the children see how to grow plants and the stages of plant growth from seed, germination, and maturity. The impact of our gardens on the environment and vice versa could also be covered as well as careful use of natural materials, consider using recycled compost, the benefits of growing your own food locally and how these impact on our environment.
We are looking forward to a wonderful competition!