Agriculture students branch out to Chelsea with Highland croft garden

The Sustainable Highland Garden created by students at the Scottish Agricultural College in Edinburgh has been chosen as one of the show gardens at this year's prestigious RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

The garden is a contemporary adaptation of an ancient Scottish way of life and includes revolving mechanised panels to attract sunshine and deflect wind, an organic vegetable and herb garden with a water rill running through it and a beehive. The croft, which is made of straw bales, has a wildflower roof, solar panels and a wind turbine.

Paul Lyall, one of a dozen students who helped design the garden, said the students were "amazed" to have had been selected for one of the coveted show garden spaces.

"We entered for Chelsea with no real expectation but then found there was a lot of interest in us.

"It's taken us over a year of hard work to prepare for the show starting with growing most of the plants ourselves.

"We've also just had the logistical nightmare of having to drive everything down to Chelsea in a van to build the garden and the croft.

"All our plants had to be packed up and transported down like fine china so that nothing got crushed which would mean losing points when the judges come round."

Lyall added that crofting and sustainability was attracting increasing attention after television programmes such as Monty Hall's Great Escape where the marine biologist adapted an old croft near Applecross in the Highlands to include features such as a windturbine.

The Sustainable Highland Garden is one of nine chosen for the Courtyard category for small gardens.

Rivals for the medal include the Green & Black's Rainforest Garden, the Rhubarb and Crumble Garden celebrating all things Yorkshire and the Christian Before Dior Garden – featuring the flowers which influenced the designer's couture collections.