PRIMARY school pupils have been getting their hands dirty in a competition run by a garden centre.

The aim of the contest run by the Old Railway Line Garden Centre at Three Cocks was to inspire young children to have a go at gardening and learn about growing food in their own plots.

Five primary schools were set the challenge to grow their own potatoes and the winner of the new Growing Young Gardeners trophy would be the school that grew the heaviest crop.

On Thursday (July 19), youngsters from the schools went along to the garden centre to find out who the winner was and the biggest bumper crop was judged to have been produced by Class Derw from Talgarth Primary School. Old Railway Line Garden Centre director Mark Cleary said all of the primary school children had performed really well.

Explaining how the competition worked, he said: “This year we launched a competition for local primary schools to inspire pupils to get involved in gardening and teach them about growing food at home.

“We set five schools the challenge to grow potatoes, promising the winning class from each school a prize for the heaviest crop. We donated the required tools, compost and seed potatoes to get each class started and gave them the required information and advice needed to take part. It’s been a great project and very rewarding to see so many local children enjoying gardening at school.

“It was a great pleasure awarding Talgarth Primary School with the new Growing Young Gardeners trophy, which will be awarded each year to the winning school. Class Derw managed to grow the heaviest crop giving their school the title for 2018.

“The award ceremony also gave us the opportunity to thank each school for taking part and award vouchers to be spent at the garden centre for future gardening projects. We are already looking forward to next year’s competition and we hope the pupils of each school are too!”