Category: Blog

The Young Gardeners of the Year competition is over for another year. And Ideal Home Show visitors voted us the ‘Most popular feature’ at the show, so a big thank you to everyone who voted!

Six of the UK’s top horticultural and design colleges competed to design the best show garden and wow the judges at the Ideal Home Show in Earl’s Court, London.

This year, the focus was on creating peaceful garden spaces for city dwellers using sustainable techniques and repurposed materials.

All six gardens were incredible, and the judges were impressed by the range of techniques and design ideas demonstrated by the students.

Read about the Prince of Wales’ visit to meet the students.

But it’s not just the judges’ verdict that counts! Visitors to the Ideal Home Show had the opportunity to vote for their favourite garden to win the prestigious People’s Choice Award.

And almost 22,000 people cast their vote over the show’s 17 day duration!

Finally, the results are in. The winner of the People’s Choice Award 2014 is Capel Manor College, with their garden ‘Cultivate Calm’. Congratulations!

A special mention also goes to Writtle College, who came in (very) close second. There were only a few votes difference!

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To recap, here are the final competition results:

Click on each college name to see their finished gardens!

Chichester College – overall winners of Young Gardeners of the Year 2014, plus a gold medal and the Best at Show award.

Capel Manor College – Gold Medal and People’s Choice Award

Writtle College – Gold Medal

Askham Bryan College – Silver Gilt Medal

Bridgwater College – Silver Gilt Medal

Shuttleworth College – Silver Medal[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

This year, HRH The Prince of Wales visited the Ideal Home Show and I went down to London to meet him. We held a VIP reception to celebrate the Ideal Young Gardeners of the Year competition, where he was introduced to the tutors and student winners from Chichester College.

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The competition is run in association with his charity, the Prince’s Foundation for Building Community, which promotes the values of sustainable living and development through an array of projects and education programmes.

Prince Charles spoke to the students individually about their garden creation, and he was keen to know what they would go on to do in the industry when they left college.

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He also noted the importance of teaching horticulture and encouraging more young people into the gardening industry.

It was wonderful to see the students’ hard work recognised, and to see them so encouraged to go on to undoubtedly fantastic careers in horticulture.

Students from Chichester College were awarded a gold medal and the Best at Show award by the judges for their ‘Refreshing the Pallet’ garden. It saw them crowned the Ideal Young Gardeners of the Year at the awards ceremony on the Ideal Home Show Super Theatre.

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