Year Six students in Orange, Millthorpe, Molong, and surrounds are invited to enter a new short story competition recently launched by the Australian Garden History Society (AGHS) ahead of their national conference in Orange later this year.

The competition, which comes with a $200 first prize, asks students to write about a real or imaginary garden of a “grandfriend”, an older person, whether they be a grandparent, great aunt or uncle, neighbour, or family friend with whom they have a relationship through gardening.

Along with the monetary prize, the AGHS will present the winner’s school with a plant and plaque, and an AGHS membership to a grandfriend.

The writing competition is a new venture for the AGHS, a national organisation that promotes awareness of and conservation of significant gardens and cultural landscapes.

Francesca Beddie, editor of the AGHS journal ‘Australian Garden History’ said they hope this competition will not only inspire young writers, but also raise broader community awareness about the importance of retaining old gardens, street trees, and other green spaces.

“Branches do things at their own level, both garden visits and things like that, but also seminars and advocacy, because we don't want to see every tree chopped down. And we want to see beautiful parks like you've got in Orange preserved, and we try to help garden owners to keep up their big old gardens,” Francesca said.

“But to be frank, it's older people who tend to be interested in this stuff, in garden history, and we'd love to encourage younger people to think about gardens and the history of gardens.

“So it seemed like a nice opportunity to encourage younger people to talk to ‘grandfriends’ and maybe also encourage their grand friends to look into what AHGS does and whether it's an organisation they'd like to be involved in.”

The first prize and three runners-up prizes will be presented at the AGHS national conference in September, which is being held in Orange for the very first time.

Some 250 people are expected to attend the four-day conference, September 24-27, with the program including garden tours, winery visits, and a lecture program that is also open to non-members.

“They are very good conferences, because they've got that mixture of being talked at and then going and seeing what you've been talked at about, ” Francesca said.

“And garden history people like wine, so Orange is a very good place to be having a conference.”

Entries for the writing competition close on July 10. It is free to enter and the four winning stories will be published in ‘Australian Garden History’ with authors invited to submit an illustration or photograph to accompany their work. Further details about the competition and conference are available on the AGHS website: www.gardenhistorysociety.org.au