Paul Stone
Landscape Manager of the Eden Project
This year, Paul, Landscape Manager of the Eden Project, is teaming up again with the Homes and Communities Agency after last year’s success with The Key garden. Like last year, the purpose of the garden is to employ the skills of socially disadvantaged or excluded people at every stage, from designing the garden to growing the plants and building the component parts, thereby providing them with experience and training to equip them for future work opportunities. This year’s garden entitled Places of Change is going to be a stretch though…
Royal Horticultural Society So, you’re putting together the biggest show garden ever seen at Chelsea?
Paul Stone Yes, it’s almost three times the size of last year’s garden at 590m². It’s going to take up the whole triangle at the bottom of Main Avenue.
We are venturing into the unknown, but the size does mean we can do something completely different design-wise.
RHS Just a bit more pressure then?
PS It is and it isn’t. We are venturing into the unknown, but the size does mean we can do something completely different design-wise. It also provides a fabulous opportunity to get more people involved. The big plot means we can grow lots of plants all over the country.
RHS How is the Eden Project’s philosophy represented?
PS Eden has a worldwide philosophy of wanting to make people aware of the importance of the relationship between people and plants and the whole thing just ties in together. The overall theme is that horticulture is at the centre of life and from it come all the things we need. We can push that message home by involving the most unlikely candidates: homeless people and prisoners - amateurs who may be in the process of training or work experience – giving them an opportunity. We like to think of our teams as buried treasure, the ones that society tends to give up on, but here they are and I’ve got every reason, especially after last year, to expect just as much from this garden.
RHS So striving for a Gold Medal isn’t part of the picture?
PS Striving for excellence is the aim, if Gold is part of that then fine. We’re not classic gold medal material - our budget is being spent on people. I could buy lots of fine plants, but what benefit would that have for the people we are trying to help? OK, at the moment we’ve got people we’ve never met, who haven’t grown plants before, growing plants. It’s touch and go, but we are approaching it in a professional way and I expect the result to be comparable to the other gardens.
RHS It must be tricky to coordinate - how’s it going?
PS The designs are done, everybody knows what they’ve got to do and when they have to deliver and everybody is doing it. I’ve got a month’s accommodation booked in London, I know when we’re starting and I know who’s doing everything and in what order. So everything’s in place.