Honda (UK) scoops 'Best in Show' with 'Childhood Memories' garden at BBC Gardeners' World Live 2012
14 Jun 2012
Honda (UK) has been awarded 'Best in Show' and a gold medal by the RHS for its 'Childhood Memories' garden at BBC Gardeners' World Live.
'Childhood Memories', designed by multi award-winning Adam Frost, tops a fantastic season for Adam so far, hot on the heels of a fourth Chelsea gold in May.
The garden was designed to provoke nostalgic childhood recollections amongst show-goers, inspired by Adam's passion for gardening, nurtured at an early age by hours spent on his grandfather's allotment. It features a vegetable patch, dipping ponds, a lawn, a woodland area with a tent, and almost 30 varieties of plant.
'Childhood Memories' also draws inspiration from one of Honda UK's nominated charities, Greenfingers. The charity creates gardens for children with life-limiting illnesses in hospices, to provide spaces for families to spend precious time together away from the bedside. After the show, the garden will be broken down and the main elements transferred to a Greenfingers hospice garden.
Commenting on the win, Adam Frost said: "A gold medal and a best show garden title - it doesn't get any better than that. It's been great to work with Greenfingers because it's such an important cause. Working on the garden - despite the weather threatening to turn it into one giant water feature - has brought back some really strong childhood memories of my own so I'd like to thank Honda and Greenfingers for my chance to be nostalgic."
Deborah Skillicorn, Director of Marketing and Fundraising at Greenfingers, said: "The garden is truly amazing and we are thrilled that the inspiration for it was drawn from Greenfingers . I'd like to congratulate Adam and the Honda team, it was a very well deserved win. I'd also like to thank Honda for its donation of the main elements from the garden, which will be used in the garden that we will be creating later this year at Derian House Children's Hospice in Chorley, Lancashire."
The garden was built by Richard Penfold and his team at New Ground Landscapes. Richard and Adam previously worked together at Barnsdale Gardens, and New Ground has since built many of Adam's medal-winning show gardens.
The on-site build at the show took 700 hours of labour. The hardest part, according to Richard, was the weather - just five of the 14 build days were dry - making it the wettest show construction he has ever worked on. As a result, ground conditions were very poor, making pointing the paving particularly difficult. Richard was especially pleased with the benches, constructed from cross cut turned conifer stakes and Green Oak frames, and the fire pit section is an area he'd like in his own garden.
Phil Webb, Head of Power Equipment at Honda (UK), said: "We're over the moon with these well- deserved awards, and we'd like to thank Adam, New Ground and everybody else who contributed for such a fantastic effort. I'm particularly pleased that the garden has increased the profile of such a worthwhile charity in Greenfingers, and that many elements of this garden will live on in a children's hospice."
Honda (UK) and Greenfingers have several others to thank for contributing materials free of charge, including Rolawn, Scotts, Bradstone Paving, Willow Tree Services, Quercus UK and Elwood. Adam Frost also very kindly donated his time in designing and building the garden, in support of the Greenfingers charity.
