What does Ranscombe Farm Reserve mean to you? was a postcard competition organised by Plantlfe, an organisation that protects wild plants and wildlife at Ranscombe Farm Nature Reserve, in partnership with Medway Council, as part of a Heritage Lottery project to continue Plantlife’s on-going education and outreach work engaging and involving local people in it's wildllfe, landscape and heritage.

Launched in April 2014, participants were asked to design a postcard-sized piece of art that illustrated what Ranscombe meant to them. Plantlife were looking for entries that were exciting and original showcasing Ranscombe’s wild flowers, landscape and history. There was an opportunity to win one of 15 prizes to be awarded across four age categories from young children to adults. In addition, the winners’ artwork has been printed as real picture-postcards!

To inspire local people, a series of free creative workshops were organised, run by professional artists at Ranscombe Farm Reserve including:

•Sunday 28th April: Wild at Heart with local artist, Wendy Smith

•Sunday 28th April: The Whispering Wild: Stories from the heart of the wilderness with Emily Parrish

•Sunday 26th May: Flower Detectives with local artist, Wendy Daws

•Sunday 16th June: Find a Painted Landscape in the Foliage with Andy Evans

•Sunday 28 July: Bees, Bugs & Butterflies with local artist, Päivi Seppälä aka Poppana

Free nature-inspired workshops were also offered to schools across Medway with a handful of schools taking up the offer. Children created nature-inspired mono-printed flags and designed their own flowers.

The competition closed at the end of July with the final winning entries selected by three judges. The winners attended an awards ceremony on Sunday 1 September 2014, as part of Plantlife’s Woodland Open Day with The Worshipful The Mayor of Medway Councillor Josie Iles as the guest of honour.

To celebrate this competition, a touring exhibition of the final winning artwork was located in various libraries across Medway and seen by over 19,000 people.

For further information please contact Plantlife on:

Telephone: 01634 292062

www.plantlife.org.uk/ranscombe

Follow us on Twitter @Ranscombe_Farm

www.facebook.com/RanscombeFarm