College "Beetles off" with gardening gold
A team from Oatridge College in West Lothian has "Beetled off" with a gold medal from the Gardening Scotland show in Edinburgh, for a glowing display of flowers planted up in a clapped out model of the iconic Volkswagon car. The award was the centrepiece of a bouquet of prizes picked up by the College at the prestigious event.
Horticulture experts Ann Burns and John Smith called in engineering technician John Mallon to advise on the design their quirky exhibit, entitled Perennial Petal Power, carried out on behalf of the retired gardeners' charity, Perennial. College students were drafted in to help turn the 38 year-old Beetle into the "Best Show Garden".
It is the third year in the last four that Ann and John Smith have taken top prizes working with Perennial at Scotland's largest gardening show. Two years ago they won "Best in Show" with a garden created from recycled junk, including old car tyres and Irn Bru cans and the year before they won a gold medal for a less controversial East coast-themed garden.
The flower power car at the centre of this year's grand design was donated by the Lothian VW Club and has something of a history. At one point it was turned into an amphibious vehicle and cross the Firth of Forth in a charity fund raising stunt. In recent years it has been rotting away at the bottom of a garden, but thanks to the imagination of the designers and the hard work of students, it became one, with marigolds, sunflowers, tagetes and amaranthus sprouting from every opening, including the boot and the engine compartment.
Oatridge had several more reasons to celebrate at the show. Two teams of landscaping students won their way to the UK finals of the "World Skills" competition in September, Colin Smith and Petrus Jacobs in the advanced section and Scott Cousins and Daniel Scott in the Intermediate section. Pallet gardens created by school pupils who attend horticultural classes at the College and Suntrap, won four medals. Cedarbank School got silver, Pinewood, silver gilt and Broxburn both silver and silver gilt. Teams of apprentices from Edinburgh City Council's Parks Department who attend the College also came first and third in the planted containers competition.
