Two Offaly winners in 2024 Woodie's Budding Gardeners competition

A school and family from Offaly have scooped top prizes in this year's Woodie's Budding Gardeners competition.

Ciaran Guinan and students from 5th and 6th class in Saint Kieran's National School, Clonmacnoise, and the Thomas family from Geashill, were announced as runner's up in this year’s Woodie’s Budding Gardeners competition, each taking home a €250 Woodie's gift card. Now in its fourth year, the Woodie’s Budding Gardeners campaign encourages children across Ireland to flex their green fingers by taking on an exciting garden project at home or in school while learning about the importance of plants along the way.

This year saw a record number of entrants to the competition with families and schools across Ireland taking part in the campaign and the overall winners were the Brennan family from Co. Louth, who scooped the top prize, receiving a cheque for €1,000. This year's theme was "The Power of Plants" and children were tasked to Plant A Patch of their choice between the months of March and May. Woodie's garden expert and judge Brian Burke was impressed with this year’s entries saying: "Of all the jobs I did this year, there was none tougher than judging the Woodie’s Budding Gardeners competition. The innovation, creativity, and imagination on display from Ireland’s young gardeners is phenomenal, and the level of work and attention to detail is so impressive. It was clear these young Budding Gardeners had lots of fun along the way and that’s really what it’s all about; cultivating a passion for gardening and plants while learning about the importance of biodiversity to support our planet."

"This year’s theme was Plant A Patch, and there were loads of different ideas from every corner of Ireland with creative thinking on how to fully utilize all sorts of spaces at home and school, big and small. Some entrants went for flower or wild patches and others went for edibles like fruit, veggies and herbs - it was amazing to see what could be accomplished during the allotted time. Like every year, it was extremely tough picking the winners. Huge congratulations to everyone who took part, amazing work, and we hope to see you back next year."

Adding to this and congratulating all the entrants and this year's winners, Rachael Williams, Brand & Communications Manager at Woodie’s said:

"Thank you to each and every family and school who took part in this year’s Woodie’s Budding Gardeners competition. We had an amazing response to the campaign with a record number of entrants in 2024. It is great to see this campaign grow year on year as we know the importance of helping our young Budding Gardeners grow their knowledge about gardening and the importance of it, all while having some fun along the way. Once again, we were impressed by the work and this year's patches were so creative. Well done to everyone!"