Children inspire a remarkable garden
Dorney: Horticulturalist designs for Chelsea Flower Show
A horticulturalist and RHS Ambassador is designing his first RHS Chelsea Flower Show Garden, promoting the importance of children’s mental health.
Jamie Butterworth, managing director of Form Plants Ltd, based in Dorney, is designing the garden, ready for the show which will take place from Tuesday, May 24 to Friday, May 28.
The Place2Be Securing Tomorrow Garden aims to provide a safe space where children can take time, feel calm and talk, while also enjoying the plants and being outdoors.
The garden is being established in partnership with Place2Be, a children’s mental health charity, and Sarasin &
Partners, a sustainable investment manager.
The Place2Be Securing Tomorrow Garden will utilise the space and the platform of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show to bring about discussion and greater understanding of the significance of nurturing and supporting mental health from an early age.
Jamie’s design has been created with the input of pupils and staff from Viking Primary School in Northolt,
West London, which has been working in partnership with Place2Be for the last 12 years.
The planting scheme for the garden will feature ‘lush and green’ and will emphasise a feeling of wellbeing and safety, highlighting the ‘vital connection’ youngsters need to have with plants, growing and taking care of the outside world.
Providing a splash of colour, pops of yellow and blue, chosen by Viking Primary School pupils, will also feature.
Shrubs, perennials, trees and ground cover plants will make sure that rainfall is slowed down and flooding is reduced.
The garden will also feature structural elements, made using ‘sustainable practices’ by artisan craftspeople in Berkshire.
With the support of Sarasin & Partners, the garden will be relocated within the grounds of Viking Primary School, following the end of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
For the show, Form Plants Ltd will grow and supply 15,000 plants and more than 40 trees between five show gardens, all managed at the Dorney site.
Jamie said: “It’s so important to encourage children to engage with nature. Through my work in schools as an RHS Ambassador I’ve seen first-hand the positive difference to children’s lives.
“I hope the garden will inspire everyone to think about the importance of outdoor space, a sanctuary where we look after and nurture our mental wellbeing.”
“That’s why I’m so delighted to create a garden which promotes children’s mental health, that will have a life beyond Chelsea, bringing a positive impact to the lives of primary school children who have no, or limited, outdoor space at home.”