Pupils from a Hull primary school impressed judges with their wide variety of vegetables and brightly-decorated box to scoop the top prize in a competition to encourage healthy eating.
A group of children from Gillshill Primary School in Cavendish Road, Hull, took the top honours in the Children’s Vegetable Garden Competition, organized by the Yorkshire Agricultural Society.
Dozens of schools from across the Yorkshire region, from as far afield as Leeds and Leyburn and Bradford and Batley, took part in the competition. The Society provided the boxes, and pupils planted seeds and young plants, tended their crops and kept diaries detailing what they were growing, and how.
Television gardener Christine Walkden, resident gardener on BBC’s TV’s The One Show, had the tough task of choosing the best vegetable box after the best 15 were invited to the Great Yorkshire Show.
She, and fellow judge Luke Tilley of Stocksbridge Technology Centre, were impressed by the Gillshill Primary School box.
Christine Walkden said:
This had the greatest variety of vegetables and flowers, and, from looking at the diary, all the pupils had been involved in the planting and tending of their crop.
The graphics on the box were also wonderful, and the pupils had written up recipes, had obviously thought about what they wanted to grow, and what they would use the vegetables for. They have put in a great deal of hard work and are deserved winners,” said Ms Walkden.
The Children’s Vegetable Garden Competition, run by the Yorkshire Agricultural Society, is sponsored by the NFU and Stocksbridge Technology Centre at Cawood, near Selby. Planting boxes were delivered to schools across the region, with the compost provided by Bulrush Horticulture Ltd.
