New gardening competition from Healthiest Town aims to make us more nature-friendly 
 

Healthiest Town is this year launching a new competition to encourage us to think about nature and wildlife when we garden. Called the Aberfeldy Nature Friendly Garden Competition, it is open to anyone in the wider Aberfeldy area and all gardens are welcome to enter, no matter the size and including community and school spaces,  There will be one overall winner (£100 and a commissioned garden sculpture) and three category prizes of £100 each – best garden for insects, balancing food growing and nature, and the wow factor.

Emma Burtles, from Healthiest Town, is encouraging all gardeners, from the experienced to the novice, to enter the competition. She said: “Size doesn’t matter either, but what you do with it to help make space for nature. A study from 2022 showed that the UK's flying insect population had dropped by as much as 60% in the past 20 years because of rising temperatures and fragmented habitats. Scotland’s situation is better than other parts of the UK, with a decline of about 30%, but we do still need to act as the impact goes far beyond just the insects, affecting whole eco systems.
 

Small changes to our gardens can play a significant part in reversing that decline. Here are just a few ideas:

• collect rain water

• plant for pollinators (especially native plants)

• go peat free and make your own compost

• install a pond

• plant hedging and meadow lawns

• install a ‘green roof’ on your shed

• make your own eco weed killers and fertilizers

• leave a pile of logs for insects, frogs and hedgehogs to call home

• add bird boxes

• create gaps in your fences to allow small mammals to pass through

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If you are new to gardening, particularly fruit and veg, Healthiest Town has a support group called Growing in Aberfeldy, which offers a WhatsApp chat group and monthly get togethers. If you would like to know more about joining the group, info can be found here.