New Term New Garden

The garden is finished!  Mike, Chris, Marty and Rachel worked so hard to get this in place, ready for the students who would be returning from their summer holidays today.

Our lovely boat in its final resting place

For those of you who have read other posts on this blog, you will be aware that the students have been involved with the project, they have made some of the copper scales on the Blenny Fish – together with the tiles that surround this water feature.

Blenny fish water feature that the students helped create

They have also created some colourful sea creatures that feature in the ‘surf’ shack on a felt seaside background.

Colourful display of sea creatures

The team have left a sand pit ready for the students to enjoy making castles and shapes.

Play sand ready for the students

It has been a great project – a very worthy one and we all hope the students have lots of fun in their new garden.

Rachel, Chris, Marty & Mike - the 'garden team'

Lanyon Bowdler sponsored this garden, a plaque is displayed to recognise this

The garden wouldn’t have been possible without the help and assistance of lots of people and businesses – information relating to them is found on the ‘Thanks to..’ page, please take a look to see who was involved.

Shrewsbury Flower Show – Show Days

The garden was a winner – maybe not top prize, but we were delighted to be awarded one of Shropshire Horticultural Society’s Gold Medals for our wonderful seaside space.  Another success for Mike to add to the list!

The partners and staff at Lanyon Bowdler were trilled too, many dropped by during the course of the show.  But what was really fabulous was to meet some of the children who attend Severndale Specialist School and their families – totally made all the hard work worthwhile.  The students will love the garden when it is reinstated – the colourful material supplied by STM was used as a flooring to our gazebo, we included play sand and buckets and spades – needless to say we were pretty popular with the children!

A fun colourful place alongside our garden

We were so lucky to welcome Beth Prior to our garden – Beth played acoustic guitar and sang some lovely songs totally complementing the scene we wanted to create.

Beth sings some great tunes

We had to have a few team shots too.

Some of the team

And never to forget our Top Dog who, due to the fact he has four paws, was not allowed to actually attend the Show.

Top Dog Cliff

Today sadly the garden is being dismantled and most of it is being take to Severndale Specialist School for temporary storage, before it is recreated later this month.  Keep on checking this blog for updates….

 

The Show Garden for Shrewsbury Flower Show is Finished!

How amazing does this look?  Mike Russell and his team have created the most stunning seaside garden – it looks as though it has been in place for years, it’s established, weathered and so relaxing!

The finished garden - quite amazing....

And here is a photo of the team (including mascot Cliff), in the clinker boat.

Five and a dog (Cliff) in the boat

So we have been judged – but we don’t know the outcome yet….. nerve racking times!

Mike Russell - the fantastic garden designer behind this project

We have a guitarist to strum away some tunes over the next two days – so do come and visit us.  Sadly on Sunday the garden has to be taken down – but it will be taken up to Severndale Specialist School for storing with the hope it is recreated before the students come back to school after the summer holidays!

The Severndale Specialist School Show Garden is Really Coming Together

It’s Monday 8 August – and needless to say the weather is starting to look dodgy, but that’s not stopped the workforce!

The Quarry was full of life when I called by this morning.  With six other show gardens being built, there is plenty going on, biased I may be – but our garden looks fantastic.

High vis jackets a necessity this year

The above shot is how I left things this morning, when I returned around 4.30pm this afternoon there had been considerable progress.

The boat now has a sail

The copper elements of this wind chime were made by the students at Severndale Specialist School.

Copper fish make a super wind chime

I love these lanterns that Mike has bought along.

Retro looking lanterns

So below are a few more photos – Mike Russell and his team are superb, the attention to detail is second to none and the effort everyone is putting into this project is wonderful – thanks guys!  I’ll be back for more photos tomorrow.

Blenny fish looking good

Original wooden clinker boat (via eBay)

An array of gorgeous colour

 

Building Starts in The Quarry, Shrewsbury

Work started on the garden on Monday – with judging taking place next Thursday (11 August), that should hopefully give the guys enough time to ensure a perfectly finished show garden!

Pavings are laid for the base

When I went back to The Quarry on Wednesday things had really moved on.

Taking shape already

The timbers from Borth look amazing – really giving an authentic feel to this project (I even caught a whiff of the sea!).

The sea carpet – made at Severndale Specialist School is looking fantastic – really colourful and eye catching.  We have decided we don’t want to miss the opportunity of impact and so this may well form the flooring to our ‘tent’ which will sit alongside the garden.

A carpet of sea creatures

I shall be popping down to The Quarry shortly to see how things are going, so another post will follow over the weekend – but I left them on Wednesday having a bit of a break in the sun, and the gorgeous Cliff was on his best behaviour.

Having a break in the sun

Cliff looking particularly handsome

 

A Sea Carpet full of Fish

We owe a big thank you to STM who are kindly supporting our garden project with the provision of synthetic turf, which is being used at the Shrewsbury Flower Show and back at Severndale Specialist School – where the garden will be recreated at the end of August.

Mike had the vision of how things needed to look in order to create a ‘marine scene’:

different colours being used to depict the sea

STM have supplied lots of different coloured materials which are able to be cut and glued together. Paul, Severndale’s  DT Technician set about making the templates of various creatures:

templates cut for the sea creatures

After much careful, and very time consuming work, Paul has produced something quite unique:

fish swimming in the floor

colourful seahorse

And so next week Mike and his team will start building the garden in The Quarry in readiness for Shrewsbury Flower Show – fingers crossed the weather stays dry, do keep coming back during the course of the coming few weeks for updates, to see how we fair at the show and of course to see the garden finally in its resting place at the Monkmoor Campus in Shrewsbury.

Timbers from Borth

As time marches on, and the Shrewsbury Flower Show gets ever closer, things are starting to fall into place.  A day trip to Borth with garden designer Mike Russell resulted in a really helpful meeting with Keith Hughes – Foreman with BAM Nuttall.  BAM Nuttall are the contractors tasked with the Borth Coastal Defence Scheme – an important project costing millions of pounds, which will result in the properties and village of Borth being protected from high tides and winter storms.

The scheme will include an offshore reef, which breaks the waves, thereby protecting the beach.  The reef has been shaped to provide some surfing function …. so this is where an idea has evolved from!

Groynes on the beach at Borth

To complete the project the existing long groynes – famous landmarks on Borth’s beach – need to be removed.  Mike had already heard about this, and had come up with the idea that using some of these groynes in our Show Garden, would provide a truly marine feel.

Seaweed on the groynes

So last Friday Mike and I enjoyed a trip to the seaside which resulted in Mike, Huw, Chris and Christie going back on Tuesday – armed with chain saws and angle grinders – in order to cut up some of the timber and bring it back to Shropshire.

BAM Nuttall were really helpful in providing a safe area for the guys to do their work and now the timber is back – smelling ever so slightly of the sea!

These timbers will be used to skin the containers of flowers and coastal plants.  I think there is going to be quite a bit of hard work involved.

So now we have:  a stunning water feature and copper wind chimes, water worn timber, synthetic flooring materials which will depict a sea scene with colourful fish, the all important boat, plants and a beach shack is under construction.

What’s needed next will be the accessories – this is where the ‘surfer’ feel comes into play – our sensory seaside garden needs to be a ‘used’ space and so we have decided to accessorise it as a surfers retreat.  Mike has already picked up a 1960′s Bush radio (and it works), plus some aged directors chairs; surf boards and other items will decorate the area giving it a truly lived in feel.  Can’t wait to see the finished result!