Solar Spud and citygarden grab gongs

THE city scored a double whammy at the Hillsborough Garden Festival recently with children from Oakgrove Integrated Primary School picking up a silver award for their eco-friendly scarecrow and a team of local conservationists picking up gold for their Londonderry inspired garden.

An eco-friendly scarecrow called Solar Spud made by a team of pupils from Oakgrove Integrated Primary picked up a silver award at the Garden Festival at Hillsborough.

The scarecrow was in competition with over 20 other colourful characters, which were made by teams of school children from Integrated Primary Schools throughout Northern Ireland.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Sponsor Sharon McTaggart, Operations Manager, Allianz said: “The quality of the entries in this year’s Allianz Scarecrow Street was top class and we had great fun choosing the winners.

“The characters created by the children were so imaginative that it was quite difficult to choose which should win in each category.

“Congratulations to the schools on their brilliant scarecrows. We are glad so many people came along to the Festival throughout the weekend to meet each of the scarecrows in Allianz Scarecrow Street.”

In a further success for the city a team of amateur gardeners from the Conservation Volunteers and Derry City Council scooped gold for their Londonderry-inspired themed garden.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The team, which included Italian and Spanish students got together at the Festival site in the Walled Garden at Hillsborough Castle, the day before the opening of the Show, and had one day to build their garden.

The Londonderry team took the city as their inspiration using stone to represent the City’s Walls and Oak to represent the Peace Bridge.

Plants featured were of the 2013 City of Culture colours and musical notes carved out of oak were placed in the garden to symbolise the musical heritage of the city.

Mayor, Alderman Maurice Devenney said: “The Conservation Volunteers have been working around the UK and Northern Ireland to reclaim green places since 1959 and carry out immense work in places which are in danger of being lost or degraded.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“They have a huge focus on protecting environments and nature, their focus in protecting the human aspect of conservation by allowing people to take responsibility encourages communities to get involved.

“It is with great delight that NW Conservation team has collected this award for their hard work and dedication to this project, and on behalf of Derry City Council we will continue to support them in their conservation of our green areas.”