The Big Tree Country awards ceremony, launched to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Perth and Kinross Countryside Trust, was held recently at Gleneagles Hotel.

Crieff High’s gardening gang won the education award, presented by journalist and broadcaster Lesley Riddoch, for its work designing and creating two gardens in the school’s grounds a quiet one and a Mediterranean one.

The gang is made up of S1 to S5 pupils associated with the support for learning base and was established nine years ago.

The quiet garden is used daily by pupils as a space away from the bustle of the playing fields, according to Fiona Anderson, learning support teacher. It was designed with environmental issues in mind. It uses natural products, has bird-feeders and a variety of plants and flowers.

The Mediterranean garden, said Mrs Anderson, was a “huge project” which saw a courtyard neglected for 20 years transformed using decking, planters and cafe style tables and chairs. “It’s good for the pupils to get outside and to be physically active,” she said. “They learn about the ongoing work involved in a garden and have to work as a team and decide what they are going to do.

“They go to the garden centre, work with the people there and handle money. It gives them some ideas for jobs they might like to do. Last year, one of our students went to college to study horticulture.”

The gang now plans on developing a herb garden to supply chives and parsley to its kitchen. For the time being, though, they are concentrating their efforts on maintaining the gardens they have already developed and raising the Pounds 3,000 it has cost to revamp them.