Peacock tails inspire horticulture students
Our Horticulture students' creativity shined as part of their yearly design challenge.
Each year, our Horticulture (Practical) (SCQF Level 5) students dive into a design challenge, where they get to flex their green thumbs and creative muscles within the Biblical Garden. From picking the perfect plants to budgeting like pros, they do it all.
This year, winners Jodie and Katya shared with us their experience.
“As level 5 Horticulture students we were given the task in October 2023, to design the central borders’ summer display. We were put into pairs and small groups, 6/7 in total. According to the tradition, these designs would be presented to ‘The Friends of the Biblical Garden’ who would then choose the winning design. Our design won! We both felt super proud.
In our pair, we first brainstormed some ideas. We wanted to do something rather less traditional and, in the end, got inspired with the concept of a “peacock tail/feathers”. We really enjoyed working on the task, but it was not without challenges. For example, we had to replace the circles in our initial design with hoops, because the beds were too long and narrow. We also changed lobelia to petunia because it needs less watering and deadheading through the summer.
The next tricky thing was the quantity of plants we would need. On the floor, we marked a square metre with a tape and put out 9cm containers to estimate how many plants we needed to order. When everything was successfully calculated and ordered we started looking forward to seeing how our design would look in real life.
Finally came the day, and there we were, scratching our heads trying to work out how to transform the design from paper into actual beds. None of us are particularly good at maths, so it took our ‘collective mind’ a while to come up with the solution, especially for the hoops.
In the end all went well. It took our group three days to plant it all up. We are happy with the way it looks, and seeing visitors taking photos of our beds fills our hearts with joy and secret pride. Even though our course is now over, many of us will come back to visit the Biblical Garden and see the display in Its full glory. Come and take a look!“
Well done and thank you, Jodie and Katya.
Designed to enhance your practical skills and theoretical knowledge, this course is ideal for those seeking to enter or advance in the horticultural industry.