Good weather for a winter garden project

HORTICULTURE students who accepted a challenge to construct a winter garden on the rooftop terrace of a hotel which is hosting a leading UK conference for education and children’s services professionals could not have expected the current weather.

Students and staff at Askham Bryan College, near York, spent yesterday gathering plants and equipment for their task at the Royal York Hotel where the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, Ed Balls, is to be a keynote speaker at the NEEC 2010 conference which runs from tomorrow until Friday.

The horticultural challenge has been set to reflect the NEEC 2010 conference theme – Unlocking Children’s Potential – as the students cope with the demands of the garden’s design and construction in a limited timeframe and with the difficult winter conditions.

Students working on the challenge are from a number of courses – the Foundation Degree Course in Landscape and Garden Management, the National Certificate of Horticulture and the National Diploma in Horticulture.

College principal Liz Philip said: “This is an exciting challenge and a great opportunity to demonstrate the students’ design and planting abilities and also their creativity and practical skills.

“The demands of the weather, the construction area and challenging environment are all factors which they need to take into account.”

Askham Bryan College offers full and part-time courses in horticulture, floristry and arboriculture. It has a 26 hectare horticultural unit with an extensive glass house complex. A further six hectares of sports fields, golfing facilities and bowling green are used to teach turf management and groundsmanship.

NEEC 2010, which is regarded as the most prestigious event for education and childcare professionals, is expected to bring a 400,000 windfall to the city’s vital business tourism economy. It is being hosted by York Council, together with the city’s tourism partnership, Visit York, York University, York St John University and York College.

The conference will have as its president the chairman of the Soham Inquiry, Sir Michael Bichard.

Other speakers include former Education Secretary Baroness Estelle Morris, former Poet Laureate Sir Andrew Motion, the chairman of the Independent Safeguarding Authority Sir Roger Singleton and professor of social policy at York University and the associate director of the Social Policy Research Unit, Jonathan Bradshaw.