Myerscough landscapers to battle for Gardeners’ World accolade

The competition is being run in conjunction with the Association of Professional Landscapers (APL) and sponsored by Marshalls.  Jacob Botting and Harvey Miller, from Bespoke Outdoor Spaces, will take on Dan McGeoghegan and Ryan Bell from The Plants & Paving Company, to build a Show Garden at BBC Gardeners’ World Live, which is being held between the 14th-17^th June at The NEC in Birmingham.

The event is designed as a platform to promote excellence in the landscaping industry and support up and coming landscapers, encouraging them to engage with high profile projects. The competition will see the contenders working in pairs to build two challenging Show Gardens packed with an array of landscaping elements, to show off a variety of skills to the very best of their ability.

The gardens will be assessed by the BBC Gardeners’ World Live Show Garden Assessment Panel plus two dedicated judges from the WorldSkills Assessment Panel, assessing the gardens to WorldSkills UK standard. One duo will be crowned the same day as BBC Gardeners’ World Live Young Landscapers of 2018.

The BBC Gardeners’ World Live Young Landscapers Award is made possible through the support of top sponsors to present the competition – The APL, Marshalls, Landscape Skills Academy and JA Jones Nurseries.

Jacob, Dan and Ryan have already been recognised as some of the county’s best young talent in the sector.

Jacob Botting was a Gold medal winner and named as the ‘Best in the UK’ in landscaping at the 2016 WorldSkills finals, while in the 2017 event Dan McGeoghegan won silver and Ryan Bell was Highly Commended for his work, all while undertaking their apprenticeships in horticulture with Myerscough College.

Phil Tremayne, Manager of The APL, said “We are proud to be supporting these gardens at BBC Gardeners’ World Live. There is a well-documented and growing skills shortage in the sector and it is great to be able to link the work we are already doing in organising the WorldSkills UK Landscape Gardening competition and delivering our very own APL apprenticeship. This will help to form a pipeline into what we hope will be a great competition. We look forward to seeing the results”.

Chris Harrop, Group Marketing Director at Marshalls, said “We are thrilled to be supporting BBC Gardeners’ World Live once again. The Young Landscapers Award is a fantastic opportunity for the landscapers of the future to showcase their skills, and BBC Gardeners’ World Live is the perfect stage for them to do so. We believe it’s vitally important to nurture the next generation of landscapers, and give them opportunities to explore their own creativity. Show Gardens are the perfect setting by which to show our product’s full potential, and we look forward to seeing what ideas the competitors come up with.’’