Featherston School gardeners have captured a finals berth in a national school gardening contest for the second year running.
Glenn Quinn, Tui Products territory manager, was at the school on Friday judging The Garden Patch garden, worm winery, orchard, organic recycling operation, and hydroponics unit at the school.
The Garden Patch began life after the Room 5 class of co-ordinator and teacher Felicity Pickering transformed a disused sandpit and raised area with the help of Year 4, 5 and 6 pupils.
The Room 5 class had written to companies throughout the town and region, requesting donations for equipment and garden resources, and the garden had gone from strength to strength, winning finalist prizes last year and a spot prize of paint this year that is being used to complete a garden fence mural.
Mrs Pickering said the garden boasted new elements, including a bee garden that encouraged pollination, grape vines donated from Martinborough vineyards, recycled elements such as driftwood structures, fishing crates and old tyres, and the expansive mural being painted by volunteer Pun Teofilo and a group of Year 8 boys on a length of corrugated iron fence.