It’s been a month since our success, but we’re still celebrating being awarded a Bronze Medal and the People’s Choice Award at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Flower Show Tatton Park in July 2021.
Our garden, named Full Circle, was designed and built by a team of our service users, volunteers and staff from PIER to reflect a need to go back to nature for solutions to flooding increases and amid climate change concerns.
We’re delighted to share that we scored highly for our garden’s ambition, atmosphere, originality and creativity, as well as the design and layout, and on delivering the client brief. Feedback was also positive from the judges who said they were impressed by our attitude and approach and that despite the challenges we faced with the build, our garden was an asset to the show.
Rachael Bennion, Petrus Service Manager who led the team at Tatton, said: “Taking part in Tatton has meant so much to our service users and volunteers and we are overjoyed by our success.
“It was also a great experience for us as a community and therapeutic based horticulture project as it presented the opportunity to demonstrate just how far people can come with the right support, ambition and collaborative working.
“As many of us will have experienced over the past year, being within nature either through going for walks or gardening is massively beneficial for physical and mental wellbeing. This is true for our service users and volunteers as they work at our PIER allotment, so sharing these benefits on such a grander scale at Tatton alongside solutions to increased flooding and being recognised for their design was just incredible.
“We’d like to thank our sponsors: M&Y Maintenance and Construction, Regenda Homes and The Rotary Club of Rochdale. We’d also like to thank The Regenda Group for their continued support. The impact this sponsorship and support has had for our service users and volunteers is immeasurable.”
It was incredible to receive the People’s Choice Award for the second year running following public voting having won previously during the 2019 show.
We couldn’t have achieved this Tatton success without the passion and dedication of our service users, volunteers and staff, as well as the kindness and generosity of people and organisations within our community. Including:
- Rochdale Round Table and also Northgate Systems for their generous donations
- The team at M&Y who helped with transport as well as joiner Mike Robinson who shared his skills during the build
- Cllr Rachel Massey and Cllr Philip Massey who supported with the build and breakdown of our garden
- Members of the community who supported our service users’ return to Tatton by sponsoring their walk around Hollingworth Lake
- Ladybrook Nursery who gave us a 25% discount on plants as well as delivered them at short notice onsite
- Nick at Springhill Hospice for donating plants for our garden
- Sunbelt Rentals for donating the generator which powered our exhibit
- H Bell and Sons Ltd for support with paint brushes to help bring Full Circle to life with a pop of colour
- Dunnes and Dusted for their lovely £100 donation
- Our wonderful staff member who donated in memory of their late father who loved gardening
- DHL who helped with breakdown of our garden
- Photographer Tim Howell for donating £120 and taking incredible shots of our award-winning garden to share with us
- GardenistaUK for donating cushions as finishing touches for Full Circle
- Trufab Technologies for the fab design of architectural stainless steel fabrication and water feature at discounted rate for our garden
- The wonderful exhibitors either side of us for their moral support: Clive Scott and Leon Davis Design
- The RHS show, transport and security, and health & safety teams for going out of their way to provide support and practical assistance to exhibitors
To everyone who has helped us to get here, we want to say a massive thank you. This moment will stick with our service users for years to come!
We are very proud that the legacy of our Tatton success will live on at its new home in Trafford Hall, as we plan to install our Full Circle garden onsite for the National Communities Resource Centre over the coming months. We can’t wait to show you.
To continue to support the amazing projects we do that work to rebuild the lives of vulnerable people who have experienced homelessness, please donate online by visiting https://tinyurl.com/petruscommunity