How on earth do you find the time?” is the question most frequently asked of schools that take up the Royal Horticultural Society’s Greenfingers Challenge. The honest answer is “With difficulty,” and a lot of good will thrown in from parents and local supporters.

Now in its fifth year, the competition challenges young people to create a garden that benefits their school or community and shows an understanding of environmental issues. It’s a big commitment, but the teachers and parents who give up their weekends and evenings are in no doubt that it’s worth the effort. Two schools were runners-up in the competition.

The Greenfingers Club at St Ivo Comprehensive School, in St Ives, Cambridgeshire, grows vegetables to feed the 15 rabbits and nine guinea pigs in the environmental science unit. Club members from Year 7 to Year 10, with the help of technician Pamela Coles, have designed two large “vegetable clocks”, planted a month apart to ensure a continuous supply of organically-grown crops. The club also holds plant sales to raise funds for vet fees and markets compost produced from the animal waste.

The garden is a valuable science teaching resource, but also of great social benefit, says head teacher Michael Mahoney. “It provides a daily safe-haven for many children and is good for those who learn better in less formal settings.”

The same combination of social and educational spin-offs is evident at Muskham Primary School, in Nottinghamshire, where a garden originally designed for the early years is used for creative work and science throughout the school. Parent and horticulturalist Kate Richards is running the project, with funding from community arts body New Perspectives, but everyone has a say in the design and planting.

The children took as their starting point a much-loved picture book, John Prater’s Once Upon a Time (Walker Books), so the theme of fairy tale runs through the garden, with a giant’s head and nursery rhyme mobiles in the trees, and a small maze. Year 6 children used the internet to research suitable plants and have created wildflower areas to attract birds.

The school is a focal point of the village so there’s been lots of local interest and parents have helped with planting and funding.

The Greenfingers Challenge is organised by the Royal Horticultural Society and Encams, the environmental campaigns organisation, and is sponsored by Legal and General.

For details of the 2003 competition, which is still to be confirmed Tel: 01942 612639