School garden: Hazeldene Lower School

Pupils at Hazeldene Lower School in Bedford have created a series of gardens which wowed the judges this year, landing them awards for Best School Garden and Best School Container.

Raised beds, a memory garden and veggie patches all created by the whole school have proved winners in this year’s contest, run with Frosts at Willington.

More than 300 children attend Hazeldine, and cover supervisor Aysha Magre, who has been involved with the garden project along with teacher Jade Bowers, said she has encouraged all pupils to help out with something.

A memory garden established for the school’s former site agent Pete Hughes, who died in 2009, is being maintained by year 4 pupils.

Meanwhile, year 2 youngsters have been working on a veggie patch as part of a topic .

Digging For Victory has been the theme for year 3, who have been growing traditional crops that would have been staples in wartime - potatoes, tomatoes and a host of other healthy foods.

All pupils have the chance to watch plants and veg growing, and then help with the harvest - a bumper crop of strawberries was particularly enjoyed this year.

The winners of Best School Container, seven-year-olds Sophie and Ellie-Mae, created their own miniature gardens.

Sohpie went along with the theme of a global garden, growing flowers and vegetables in a long container which she also decorated.

Ellie-Mae concentrated her container on flowers and herbs along with some beans.

All the pupils are now looking ahead to creating next year’s gardens.