Gardening for better communities
By Jean Vernon
Garden shows, big or small, bring communities together. Many have their own communities sharing and caring within the show itself and RHS Show Tatton Park is no exception. Exhibitors and garden designers work side by side with one mission, to create the best display or garden of their ability. It bonds strangers and empowers teams and the results are positive, inspiring and outstanding.
Gardening as a hobby nurtures a sharing nature. But when it brings whole communities together and helps to heal rifts and scars it is a triumph. One garden at this year’s show exemplifies the power of community spirit in every way.
Our Great Garden, above, is designed by young people for young people. It shows a garden of two sides; one is an uncared for, neglected wasteland of weeds and rubbish, the other is a brightly planted suburban space with seating, insect habitats and a lawn for play.
“It’s a good garden and a bad garden,” explains young volunteer Samantha Garlick. “We got the inspiration from New Charter Housing Trust, one of the north west’s largest social landlords. Two years ago we entered a flower competition called In Bloom and a lot of the New Charter houses got first and second prizes by planting flowers and just keeping the spaces tidy. Last year we came to Tatton to see gardens that other people created and we had an idea to do our own. Even if you only have a small back garden and not a lot of time, you can still do something rather than just leave it.”
But it’s not just about the garden and its message, the magical thing is that this project and others like it have made a real difference to the people involved.
“It’s been brilliant. I like working with the younger kids because they’ve got so many great ideas – they are dead enthusiastic,” she says. “ I’ve already started doing my own garden and I know a few plants now and I’ve learnt about herbs too. I help other people in the street do their gardens. We now help each other, when before we only spoke when there was a bad situation.”
Communication
Another garden highlighting the power of neighbourhood energy coming together to create brighter spaces is the Calling the Community garden. It’s designed to inspire people to work together to improve their community and transform areas of neglected land into productive spaces. Divided into four sections, each one shows an essence of what can be achieved in a small space, including a hen house and productive raised beds.
On the road to recovery
Sometimes the solution to a difficult issue starts with a small step. There are several gardens at this year’s Tatton Park Flower Show that depict personal journeys from dark to light. The Journey Garden represents the difficult path that homeless young people are faced with trying to get their lives back on track. Plants have been creatively used to highlight the positive and negative aspects of their route to reaching their goal.
The Making Space – From Darkness to Light garden has been designed to raise awareness of Making Space, a charity that provides support for carers and the cared for in mental health. It uses colour and symbolic planting to tell the story of life experiences, both difficulties and triumphs. It’s a thought-provoking space with some interesting symbolism - a cloud-pruned box represents the brighter physical and mental wellbeing of when the clouds are blown away.