Gallery — School Garden Competition 2025 at Culver Square

We were proud to once again host the School Garden Competition at Culver Square – and 2025 has truly been one of the best years yet!

Now in its fourth year, this much-loved project has become a staple of the Colchester community calendar, inspiring children, families, and visitors to get involved in gardening. Working closely with the brilliant Skinny Jean Gardener, we welcomed schools from across the city to bring their creative designs to life in the heart of the square.

This year’s highlights included:

• 10 primary schools across Colchester took part.
• Nearly 2,000 pupils and around 90 teachers were engaged through assemblies, workshops, and hands-on gardening.
• Every school received a Perrywood Garden Centre voucher to help bring their designs to life.
• At the plant-up day, 75 pupils and 30 teachers worked together to build their gardens, delighting visitors as they saw the spaces come alive.
• Most excitingly, there were 3,000 votes cast for the schools’ gardens.

The winners for 2025 were:

Queen Boudica School – winning a VegTrug, tools, books, and an afternoon tea for the winning teacher.

St John’s Primary School – winning tools, seeds, and books.

Prettygate School – winning seeds and a book.

Feedback from schools was overwhelmingly positive, with every school confirming they’d love to take part again in 2026 – a true reflection of how much the competition means to children, teachers, and the wider community.

Thank you to the wonderful community groups that took part: The RHS, Anglian Water, Perrywood Garden Centre, VegTrug, and of course, Lee, otherwise known as The Skinny Jean Gardener, and now The Children’s Gardening Coach.