NATURE-loving pupils at Stanford in the Vale Primary School defeated hundreds of youngsters in a competition to design the perfect fruit and vegetable patch.

It rounds off a summer of success for the school’s gardening club, which won gold at the Royal Horticultural Society's (RHS) garden in Wisley, Surrey, and was nominated for RHS Gardening Team of the Year 2017.

The youngsters were crowned champions of Wilkinson Sword’s Gardening for Schools competition, which challenged primary schoolchildren to design the ideal fruit and vegetable garden for their school.

Earlier this month, representatives from the company visited the school to meet the talented children and provide them with their prize; an extensive hamper full of all the tools they need to keep their garden growing.

Diana Thomas, proud mum of garden club siblings Imogen, nine, and Joel, six, said both children attend the club every Wednesday, as well as tending to their own allotment.

She said: "I am extremely proud that all of their hard work is paying off."

Ms Thomas added that her children love growing their own fruit and vegetables, and are eager to start using the new tools.

Helping to present the prizes was the 2012 RHS Young Gardener of the Year, Lucas Hatch, who also provided a fig growing masterclass.

Lucas is just 13-years-old but already has a wealth of experience under his belt and knows all about encouraging children to garden, spending a lot of time at his old primary school in Suffolk helping children to develop their gardens.

Sue Finney, who runs the school's gardening club, said: "It is a great honour that Stanford in the Vale Gardening Club members have become overall winners of this award.

"The children's garden designs shall be used to revamp our growing area with the help of our new tools."

The club operates once a week, as an after-school activity, and many children still attend after they have moved on from the primary school.

The children have a strong commitment to their community and plant up the borders at the entrance to the village every year.

Nick Hills, garden division general manager for Wilkinson Sword, said: “We had no idea how popular this would be, or quite how high the quality of applicants would be, but the judges were so impressed with the standard of design that the Stanford in the Vale children came up with, choosing them as the winner was an easy decision.

"They impressed all of the judges with their imaginative and competent design.”