We won the People’s Choice Award and a Silver Gilt medal for our Growing Skills Garden!
Inspired by the smoothie bike that founded Pulp Friction, our Chelsea Flower Show Growing Skills Garden spins our from the centre and features tiles created and designed by Members to mirror their beautiful spin art canvases.
About the Garden
With the home of Pulp Friction sitting near the remnants of the famous Sherwood Forest, our excellent designers, Dutch Landscape Architects, incorporated Robert Hart’s ‘forest gardens’ concept into the garden’s planting design, which is 100% edible.
The garden also highlights one of our key partnerships. The central circular structure is wrapped in a donated fire hose, nodding to our significant relationship with Nottinghamshire’s Fire and Rescue Service, who have supported the development and growth of Pulp Friction for many years.
Just 4.8% of adults with a Learning Disability in the UK are in paid employment
We’ve highlighted this stat in our garden with our 5 trees.
The garden is a space for everyone to enjoy. We hope it will live on passed the Show as a place where our Members, their families, friends, and the wider community can come together, build understanding but develop new skills and experiences together.
The Plants
Unlike other gardens at the show, our Members grew a third of the plants used within the exhibition in-house!
Every seed was sown, and every cutting potted, by a Member. We’re proud to see so many of our Member’s plants sitting within the garden. Fennel, succulents, alpine strawberries and Lady’s Mantel are among the variants grown by our Members and used within the final garden, but our proudest accomplishment is the story of our runner beans!
A huge thank you to our network of volunteers who acted as foster parents for our plants in order to keep them warm over the cooler months. It’s thanks to the hard work and dedication of our supporters that we have been able to bring a beautiful arrangements of plants at the show.
Our Growing Skills Garden proudly lives on in Nottingham
Our Garden was relocated to Stockhill Fire Station after the Show, where it continues to be managed by our Members. The garden is free to use for anyone in the community, and was designed to be a space of safety and calm for those working at the Station. Read more about the relocation here.
Our Members were involved throughout the entire process
From funding applications and garden design, to growing the plants and crafting the tiles, and travelling to the show to build and promote the garden on-site. See photos for more…
