Students create ‘peace and happiness’ garden for Gardeners’ World Live
PLOT CELEBRATES MULTIPLE SCLEROCIS CHARITY
DERBYSHIRE horticultural students will have a chance to showcase their work when they build a show garden at this year’s Gardeners’ World Live exhibition, which opens at Birmingham’s NEC on Thursday.
The mature students from Derby College, led by horticultural lecturer Mike Baldwin, are on a level three study programme, which has been designed to learn skills and knowledge in surveying, design, plantsmanship and construction – ideal for students who want to establish a gardening business.
With Mr Baldwin, they have designed a garden which celebrates and unveils the Derby
Multiple Sclerosis Society’s transformation into The Lilian Prime Trust.
The main work of the trust is to provide housing for people with multiple sclerosis and other neurological conditions, and the garden marks a new direction in which the charity wishes to travel. It also acknowledges the journey that people who live with MS take to finding peace and happiness.
This has been an incredible opportunity to design and create a garden for the prestigious Gardeners World Live. Darren Purdy
The group are currently putting the finishing touches to the various elements to the garden and growing the plants which will feature in the garden on show Gardeners’ World Live between August 26 and 29.
Visitors to the Lilian Prime Garden will walk through an arch and then alongside a person living with MS, represented by the figure sculpture in the centre of the design, towards a structure at the end of the garden - signifying a new home provided by the Lilian Prime Trust.
Features in the wheelchairfriendly garden will include planting which echo the shape and pink and blue colours of the trust logo, a soothing water feature and a bench which allows visitors to relax, breath everything in and “feel at home”.
The planting is intended to create a sense of calm and well-being – creating shade and height and raised beds to represent longevity.
The part-time students involved in the project are Darren Purdy, Sue Arthur, Jackie Emery, Rhys Green, Sam Duffy and Dave Scanlon, who study at the college’s Broomfield campus.
Darren, who is hoping to change careers and work in garden design in the future, explained: “This has been an incredible opportunity to design and create a garden for the prestigious Gardeners’ World Live and to showcase our skills to a huge audience.”
And Sue added: “We are doing all the work from growing the plants to creating the metal sculpture and laying the path so it is a real team effort.”
In 2019, Derby College students, and Mr Baldwin, were awarded a silver merit with its show garden Revelation.
After Gardeners’ World Live was cancelled last year because of the coronavirus pandemic, it was announced it would return in June this year. In March, it was announced that the event would move back two months to August to allow for restrictions to be lifted fully.