School Gardens Competition

RHS Flower Show Tatton Park 2017

Animal characters from the nation's favourite stories were brought to life for visitors to RHS Flower Show Tatton Park 2017 as part of the annual School Gardens Competition. 18 schools put on an amazing display of mini gardens, each focusing on creature native to the UK that features as character in a well known tale.

The characters were brought to life through a rainbow of colourful plants and creative artwork, all created within a 3m x 3m (primary school) or 4m x 4m (secondary schools) plot.

Two winners were chosen, one from each of the two age categories. The winners for 2017 were Glazebury CE Primary School in Warrington for their garden inspired by the rats from The Pied Piper of Hamelin with ingenious uses of recycled materials, and Springfield Special School in Crewe for their brilliant imagining of Mr and Mrs Beaver's garden from The Chronicles of Narnia.

This year's competition also included a People's Choice Award, with visitors voting for their favourite designs and with four great prizes on offer. The winners of these prizes were:
1^st Place: Walmsley C of E Primary School in Bolton, for their fantastically colourful Fantastic Mr Fox inspired garden
2^nd Place: Gatley Primary School in Stockport, whose inspiration was the badger from The Animals of Farthing Wood
3^rd Place: Croft Primary School in Warrington, for their garden inspired by Mr Toad, of Toad Hall, from The Wind in the Willows
4^th Place: Bruche Primary School in Warrington, who had Hedwig the owl from the Harry Potter series as their character

The gardens were on display throughout the show (19-23 July) and the competition will return to next year's show. Check our website next year for details on how to enter.

Scroll down to see the winning gardens and the other fantastic entries: