News

Monday 14 January 2008

Shetland-inspired garden heading for Chelsea

A garden developed by staff and students from Nottingham Trent University will feature at this year’s prestigious Chelsea Flower Show. The Shetland Croft House Garden is based on an idea from Motor Neurone Disease Association co-founder Martin Anderson MBE and has been designed by Nottingham Trent University lecturer and garden designer Sue Hayward.

Staff and students from the university’s FdSc Garden Design and Horticultural courses will help to cultivate the plants and develop the scheme at the university’s Brackenhurst campus, home to its School of Animal, Rural and Environmental Sciences. The design – inspired by a typical 1940s Shetland Croft house garden – will be just one of nine courtyard gardens being showcased at the Royal Horticultural Society event from May 20-24.

The team is creating the garden to bring awareness to the Motor Neurone Disease Association; they were approached for the challenge by Martin Anderson who lives in Nottinghamshire and is a regular visitor to Shetland.

Mr Anderson and Sue Hayward are visiting Shetland later this month to begin sourcing the plants, garden features and landscaping materials which will feature in the design.

Shetland’s unpredictable weather conditions and harsh salt winds make it one of the hardest places in the British Isles to garden, and this will be reflected in the design. To shield the garden from winds it will feature an original croft façade transported from Shetland, and the walls will be topped with turf to give them protection from weather erosion. These will be planted up with wildflowers to become a haven for insects and small mammals.

The garden path leading from the old croft door will be dressed in ‘Briggy Stane’, the Shetland name for flat stone washed up on the beaches, and the fence will be made of driftwood lashed together with twine – there are no trees in Shetland so wood is a rare commodity.  

Planting will consist of heritage vegetables and rare varieties of Shetland potatoes, such as the Foula red, alongside colourful herbaceous planting capable of withstanding the elements. Plants will include Edmonston’s Chickweed, which can only be found in this part of the world, and which will be showcased on an alpine table in one corner of the garden. A walking stick to symbolise Motor Neurone Disease will be leant against the wall.

Mr Anderson said: “I decided to enter a garden after visiting the Chelsea Flower Show last year and being really inspired – and the idea to build one incorporating an original croft came to me after a hard day’s walking in Lerwick in Shetland. In the past Chelsea Flower Show gardens have been a great platform to highlight well-deserving causes and I hope this will also be the case for the Motor Neurone Disease Association.”

Sue Hayward, a former Nottingham Trent University student, said: “We’re really looking forward to the challenge of creating this garden and being able to showcase it at one of the biggest events in the horticultural calendar. It is a privilege to be able to use our talents to try to raise awareness of the MNDA.

“There are a number of ways in which the garden links back to the association; for instance we felt the croft shelter formed a nice analogy with the refuge and support given by the association to its sufferers. It’s also good for people to understand that gardening and getting in touch with nature can help people suffering from an illness to relax and unwind.”

ENDS

Notes for editors: The RHS Chelsea Flower Show, at the Royal Hospital, showcases the finest examples of horticultural excellence, created by the best garden designers, plantsmen and plantswomen. Designers from across the globe create around 20 show gardens to make up one of the world’s most famous flower shows.

For more on this year’s Chelsea Flower Show visit    http://rhs.org.uk/whatson/events/chelsea2008.htm

Motor Neurone Disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that attacks the upper and lower motor neurones. Degeneration of the motor neurones leads to weakness and wasting of muscles, causing increasing loss of mobility in the limbs, and difficulties with speech, swallowing and breathing.

For more on the MNDA visit http://www.mndassociation.org/

Press enquiries please contact: Dave Rogers, Press Officer, on Tel: 0115 848 8782, or via email: dave.rogers@ntu.ac.uk

Or Therese Easom, Press and Media Relations Manager, on Tel: 0115 848 8774, or via email: therese.easom@ntu.ac.uk