5 Tips for a compelling entry | Competition Tips
You've done all the hard work, by creating and maintaining your school or community garden, competition entries are the easy bit. And don't worry, we're here to help...
We have put together our 5 top tips on how to write inspirational competition entries and help you get your unique message across. You don't need to be a confident writer, you just need to tell us about your plot and what makes it so special, in a way that captures the judge's imagination!
What makes your garden different?
School and community gardens up and down the country are beautiful and welcoming spaces. As you can imagine, this makes the competition a tough one to judge!
Help us by answering these questions:
- What makes your space stand out from the crowd?
- Does your garden have an unusual feature?
- Do you use recycled materials?
Promote your people!
Tell us all about the people who are involved. The judges really enjoy hearing about people, it makes a garden more personal when you let us know who is involved.
Help us by answering these questions;
- Who volunteers?
- Why do people volunteer?
- Who uses it?
- Who has visited?
How does it make you FEEL?
Garden projects are surprisingly emotional places! We hear so many inspirational stories about how being part of projects have changed lives.
If your project makes you feel proud, gets you motivated or fills you with joy... tell us about it!
If it moves you, it will move the judges, so be sure to bring emotion and truth into your entry.
Help us by answering these questions:
- How does your garden make you feel?
- What does being a part of the project mean to you?
- How has gardening changed your mindset?
Quotes
Including a quote or two can really enhance an entry. Again, it adds that personal touch and can help the judges relate to your project.
A quote from a volunteer that expresses their enjoyment of the space and how it makes them feel can add a new dimension to your entry.
Take a look back through our lists of questions. Ask members of your school or community garden one, or all, and jot down their response!
Lively fun-packed photos
Great photos are essential for telling your stories to the judges. Make sure that your supporting images show off your garden to its full potential.
Be sure to include:
- A wide shot to show the scale of your garden
- A selection of features
- People interacting and working in the garden
- Before and after photos
And remember, smiling, happy people always add cheer to any entry!
For more photo tips take a look at our 5 Tips For Better Photos blog.
If this blog has inspired you to become part of the Cultivation Street campaign, Enter Today to take your community gardening project to the next level.
Win big in the annual Cultivation Street competition, which has a staggering £20,000 to giveaway to school and community gardening projects that are changing the lives of people across the UK.