School children in Falmouth usually take great pride in planting out the flower beds at Queen Mary Gardens, but last week some were invited down to tear out the existing plants.

Each spring, pupils from the town’s five primary schools descend on the beach-front gardens and take control of one flower bed each.

With the help of gardeners from Cormac Solutions, they put their green-fingers to work, ensuring the beds look spectacular during the summer season.

Last week, though, youngsters from St Mary’s and St Francis Schools went in to do it all in reverse. Working with the Cormac gardening team the pupils spent their time taking out the summer bedding, dividing the perennial plants and re-potting them so they can be over-wintered in the town’s nursery ready for use in the garden next year.

The project is in its fifth year and has been a huge success, this year not only winning an outstanding award in the South West in Bloom awards, but also being named as the Parks and Gardens Group winner at the Cornwall in Bloom Awards.

Jacqui Owen, who co-ordinates the project, said: “This project allows the children to have real ownership of the gardens and gain first-hand experience of all the hard work that goes into maintaining our parks and gardens throughout the year, ensuring that they reach the high standards that they are renowned for.

“The Cormac gardening team are fantastic at not only teaching the children about the plants and gardening techniques, but also incorporating history, science and numeracy skills, whilst making it all fun.”