The RHS Tatton Park Flower Show celebrated its 25th year in July, with crowds travelling to the park to find inspiration and comradery from the gardening community.
As we geared up to return to the RHS Tatton Park Flower Show for our 5th year, we were delighted to be invited by the RHS to produce the show’s only feature garden, the Ginnel Garden.
Bigger than anything we had created at the show before, we looked to the Rochdale Community to help and our vision for the ‘Kaleidoscope Ginnel,’ started to come to life.
We ran sessions with pupils at Falinge Park High School, guiding them to create colourful glass floral mosaics that were set into wooden panels by local carpenter Louis Entwistle.
Volunteers from youth work charity Aspire 2 Inspire shared words of friendship and community, which were etched onto metal structures within the garden. They also joined the Petrus team on site, assisting with the build, as did volunteers from Willmott Dixon who also rallied their supply chain to provide a donation of PPE.
Our friends at J Parker’s played an integral role in our journey to the show. They raised almost £5,000 through their sponsored 13.5 mile walk, as well as donating flowers, fruit trees, planters and more to help the vision for the Ginnel to take shape.
Rachael Bennion, lead garden designer and Petrus Service Lead said: “It was a real privilege to be asked to produce the Ginnel Garden for the RHS. For them to recognise the quality of our previous gardens and trust us with such an important role in the show was really validating for all our volunteers and service users.
We’ve always believed the show was a great opportunity for us to boost confidence and feelings of belonging for our community, and this was a perfect example of that.”
The garden was also supported by M&Y Maintenance and Construction, Ecogee, Rochdale Rotary Club and Rochdale Borough Council. Long term Petrus supporters, the Cosalea Café in Bury donated delicious lunches for the team working on site every day for three weeks and from further afield, Birkenhead Car and Van Hire provided a free minibus for the charity to use for the duration.
After months of hard work, The Kaleidoscope Ginnel Garden became a shining example of the diverse friendships formed through community gardening. As well as being a celebration of the power of these friendships, it also challenged visitors see things from a different perspective by reflecting what people who have experienced homelessness, isolation, mental health issues and other complex social needs can achieve when they are empowered, trusted and believed in.
The legacy of the Kaleidoscope Ginnel will live on in Rochdale now that the show has come to an end, with four pocket gardens created for the community to enjoy.
We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who supported the garden and helped showcase the Rochdale Community at the show.
Rachael continues: “So many people, businesses and community organisations showed up to help us and we’re grateful to each and every one. We’ve so enjoyed creating gardens at Tatton Park for the last 5 years and it felt incredible to create something so special with our community.”
Find out more about the Kaleidoscope Ginnel and our previous gardens, here.
