Making the world a better place
Reflections from Joey Tabone - The Royal Horticultural Society Chelsea Flower Show 2022 took place at the end of May.
This is the second time that I have been so closely involved in a Show Garden and the first time on main avenue. Both times with Ruth Willmott Associates. The first time was back in 2012 representing Business in the Community and this year in my own right representing Sixty7.green and as part of the Ruth Willmott Associates team.
This year, it was an enormous privilege to do this with two hats on. 1. as a member of the garden design Team and 2. as a volunteer of the Arc Centre in Islington.
The experience was profoundly fulfilling.
One the one hand witnessing the enormous amount of work that goes into planning a Chelsea Flower Show Garden and on the other, what to do with it all at the end. The need to land the client brief, tick the RHS boxes, design and choose plants, create a narrative, excite people. This is all before the garden build, the plant delivery, the hard landscaping, the water feature and Pavilion installation, the safety briefings and show pass/ticketing regimentation. An unbelievably complex logistical operation within a strict, tight timeframe.
Then there are the volunteers needed to help make it all happen, staff on hand for show week, public relations, BBC interviews, the Royal visit, and social media influencers.
For our Morris & Co. Show Garden in 2022, the additional complexity lay in the post-show relocation. The need to find a partner organisation with the capability and volunteer power to take charge, plant out in record time and look after the gifted 4000 plants including some very large semi-mature trees (8 in total), all needing to happen in 3 days, at the beginning of summer – the worst planting time of the year. Against all odds, is certainly a phrase that comes to mind.
But despite the challenges, the major lesson from all of this is that the sustainability narrative we built around the 2022 Show became its defining and inspiring feature. The fact that we put sustainability at the heart of the design, the build and the relocation clearly had its part in the gold medal award at the Show. And it played a significant part in bringing together, almost in a pied piper sort of way, the army of volunteers needed for the relocation.
Out of the Chelsea limelight, the relocation and the ARC Garden Project that emerged, resulted in building community cohesion. It created skill-building opportunities, fostered new friendships, and brought local businesses and people together. It created investment in the community, and it drew out champions who demonstrated patience, love and a affinity with nature. From previously neglected spaces emerged new, beautiful, serene gardens.
The legacy from this project is probably what is most profound.
Seeding opportunities, believing in community engagement, championing the wonders of the nature. Whilst difficult to quantify in monetary value the link between sustainability and future prosperity is strikingly obvious.
And Sixty7.green made it happen.
And we will continue to support and shout loud and proud about the whole experience. Hats off to Ruth Willmott Associates for believing in us, to Morris & Co. for supporting us, to Remarkably.co for partnering with us, and most importantly, to the ARC Centre community in Packington for being such enthusiastic custodians
