The Malvern Spring Show 2008
The Malvern Spring Gardening Show was one of the greatest highs I have ever experienced.
The whole idea to build a show garden came during July 2007. I had just broken up from school and had had a very busy day in my garden as it was the height of the season. Being very tired I sat down to watch the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show on the BBC. I was sitting there sucking in all this information like a sponge as Joe Swift and Carol Klein talked about the gardens. As I had always wanted to be something to do with gardening when I was older I decided to design a Show Garden of my own. After a lot of designs which were scrapped I came up with this. (Click any image to enlarge it)
The garden was entitled "Ornamental Hurst". The style has an historical theme as it presented a time-line, moving from a prehistoric England of grassland and rocks through the centuries to modern times, incorporating the first and second world wars.
The main structure was a gazebo made from British Oak. The shape is heptagonal and was set on stilts above the water. To complement the pond it was planted with a wide variety of different plants originating from England and other countries. A waterfall cascaded over a dry-stone wall into a stream which led into two ponds. Fountains ascended on either side of the stream. The pathways were constructed with terracotta paving slabs, dividing up the gardens in order of the time-line. The rockery represents the World Wars, using shards of metal and debris surrounded by planting. A key structural plant was the box hedging which spells out "HURST" - the name of my school.
I put the plan together for Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2008. Its theme was England through the ages. I sent both the plan and axonometric to the RHS, with a client's brief with a load of forms. Sadly, I was told I was too young to enter and that they couldn't commit me a space for the largest flower show in the world. Something did come out of my efforts, though. I was invited to build the garden at the Malvern Spring Gardening Show 2008, and I was entered into the Chris Beardshaw Mentoring Scholarship.
The Chris Beardshaw Mentoring Scholarship was :
17 Designers were chosen - out of a massive 60 - to build their garden at the Malvern Spring Gardening Show 2008. I went up to meet Chris Beardshaw with the 17 others in the competition and discovered that they were all adults.
After a lot of hard work and persevering we finally started the "Big Build". Day One:- Just a bare site!
We arrived very early that Wednesday morning after staying out in a local Bed and Breakfast. I was getting very excited! Although the amount which lay ahead of me now became very clear, there was no turning back...
By the end of the first day we had achieved quite a lot. The turf had been lifted by a man in a JCB (who also dug the hole). I wanted it circular, not square! The fence post holes were dug though we had concreted some in already. We started early during the holidays, so after the BBC popped over for a chat we left home shattered.
Unfortunately because of school commitments we didn't return for quite a while after we had done this. Luckily I managed to go to Malvern in a day and get my gazebo completed.
After a lot of hard work and a dad with a prolonged illness, we got through and won a Bronze Medal! Here is the finished garden.
And the result:
