A GREEN-FINGERED Pershore College student has scooped a gold medal at the prestigious RHS Young Planting Designer 2016 competition.
Lydia Knight, a BSc Horticulture student at the college, recently won the accolade for her coastal themed garden design, which was displayed at the RHS Flower Show Tatton Park.
The garden took two weeks to build, which Miss Knight had to combine with her wedding.
She was partnered with Ewan Sewell, a finalist from the ‘Young Landscape Contractor 2016’, at the show, which aims to find the best emerging green talent.
Mrs Knight said: “Planning the garden alongside a wedding was difficult to say the least, especially since they both fell just after my end of year exams. But with my husband’s support and help, it all somehow fell together.
“The garden was the first I’ve been solely responsible for and I had to contend with some awful weather.
“I was very happy with the finished design, but it looked nothing like I’d planned as when I arrived on site I found the shapes of the borders had changed, so I had to throw any previous plans out of the window and rely purely on instinct.
“I was surprised and ridiculously pleased to be awarded with a gold medal on my first try at a show garden. I’d always thought my plant combinations were something to be hidden in my back garden, not on display to the public, so for the judges to actually like them was just fantastic.”
Visit www.warwickshire.ac.uk/pershore for more information.
