By Sarah Cosgrove
Wednesday, 28 May 2014
The people’s favourite garden at Chelsea Flower Show will be enjoyed by a whole new set of visitors when it is rebuilt at Chavasse VC House recovery centre for forces veterans.
The Cavasse scheme with Chelsea show garden near top right hand corner
The Hope on the Horizon garden won a silver gilt medal before being voted People’s Choice at the show on Friday and will form part of a much larger landscape scheme at the recovery centre in Colchester, Essex.
Both show and centre garden have been designed by landscape designer Matt Keightley and built by his company building and landscaping firm Farr and Roberts, based in Maidenhead, Kent. They plan to prepare the ground over June and July and rebuild the garden in August ready for an opening in September.
The Help for Heroes charity, which sponsored the Chelsea garden through the support of The Havisham Trust, has launched a public campaign to raise £100,000 for the work.
Keightley, who at aged 29 was one of several young Chelsea first-timers to triumph at this year’s RHS show, beat six gold medal-winning gardens and Alan Titchmarsh and Kate Gould’s From the Moors to the Sea to scoop People’s Choice.
He said: “I’m absolutely thrilled. It is such an honour, and amazing to have such fantastic public support.
“We’ve had people coming over and telling us how much they love the garden all week, but I never anticipated we would actually win.”
The Chelsea garden was designed in the shape of the Military Cross, the medal awarded for extreme bravery and was partly inspired by Keightley’s brother Mike, currently serving his fifth tour of Afghanistan with the RAF.
Centre manager Steve Schollar said: “This project will deliver a raft of new recovery experiences and capabilities.”
Chavasse VC House in Colchester, Essex is part of the Defence Recovery Capability, a partnership between the Ministry of Defence and service charities, including Help for Heroes, which gives service people who have been wounded, injured or sick the support they need to return to duty or make a smooth transition to civilian life.
More than 600 have been helped so far.
Speak Your Mind