Juliette Camburn of Keep Scotland Beautiful invites communities to take part in the 51st annual Beautiful Scotland awards, one of the longest running environmental improvement campaigns in Scotland. The 2017 theme for Beautiful Scotland and It’s Your Neighbourhood is ‘birds, bees and trees’.

Blackbird feeding on an ornamental rowan tree ©Lorne Gill/SNH

The campaigns aim to bring communities together to help deliver local environmental improvements and recognise the efforts of volunteers across Scotland as they work hard to enhance local areas.

Beautiful Scotland celebrates and supports the achievements of communities and Business Improvement Districts from across Scotland who help to improve the places they care for. Smaller-scale projects such as community allotments, friends of parks groups, after-school clubs, and community gardens can celebrate too by entering the non-competitive It’s Your Neighbourhood campaign.

Volunteers working at the Scottish Association for Mental Health walled garden at Redhall in Edinburgh. ©Lorne Gill/SNH

By providing quality greenspace for health and education, the campaign will help Scotland “take” one of the six “Big Steps for Nature” as part of Scotland’s Biodiversity Strategy and Route Map to 2020. Making shared space great for biodiversity is not just fantastic for wildlife, but a great way to improve both our physical and mental wellbeing.

Both campaigns are part of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Britain in Bloom campaign and groups will receive support, encouragement, resources and national recognition from both Keep Scotland Beautiful and the Royal Horticultural Society.

Keep Scotland Beautiful is urging communities Scotland-wide to come together and take part in the successful initiatives which recognises the tireless efforts of volunteers to improve areas in which they live, work and play. All entrants will receive a free packet of native Scottish wildflower seeds for bees.

Registration is open until end of April and is available on-line here: Beautiful Scotland / It’s Your Neighbourhood

Keep Scotland Beautiful is also on the hunt for volunteer Beautiful Scotland judges and It’s Your Neighbourhood assessors – so, if you love Scotland, the environment, meeting new people, visiting inspiring projects (and pinching ideas!), and being part of a team find out more here or email beautifulscotland@keepscotlandbeautiful.org

Honeybee feeding on a garden sedum. ©Lorne Gill

Free seeds for bees and butterflies

Keep Scotland Beautiful’s biodiversity campaign encourages and enables communities, groups, organisations, individuals (or anyone interested) to plant for pollinators, helping to increase biodiversity. This campaign aims to create healthy outdoor spaces for communities to enjoy, enabling people to learn more about biodiversity and reconnect with their environment.

To find out more, and to apply for free seeds, click here.

Follow these links to find out more about Beautiful Scotland, It’s Your Neighbourhood campaign, RHS Britain in Bloom competition.

Find out more about the benefits of greenspace for our general wellbeing here.