News

Tuesday 20 May 2008

Chelsea gold for Shetland inspired garden

A garden developed by staff and students from Nottingham Trent University has won gold 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 helped 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 – is just one of nine courtyard gardens being showcased at the Royal Horticultural Society event this year.

The team created 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.

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

The garden path leading from the old croft door is dressed in ‘Briggy Stane’, the Shetland name for flat stone washed up on the beaches, and the fence is made of driftwood lashed together with twine – there are no trees in Shetland so wood is a rare commodity. Plants include Edmonston’s Chickweed, which can only be found in this part of the world, and a walking stick to symbolise Motor Neurone Disease is leant against the wall.

Sue Hayward said: “We are all absolutely over the moon with this achievement. It was an ambitious design and we are thrilled to have been awarded gold, particularly when taking into account the extremely high standard of entries this year. Everyone has worked so hard and the tension has been really high in the run-up to the event but it's all been worth it.”

Team member Joy Mitchell, a final year student studying for a BTEC national award in horticulture, added “It’s been a real pleasure to have taken part in creating the garden.  I love the design and I’ve enjoyed every minute of helping to make it come to life.”  

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: Matt Wallace, Press Officer, on Tel: 0115 848 8785, or via email: matthew.wallace@ntu.ac.uk.

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