WELLBEING
OF WOMEN
The garden, which will feature in
the Summer Garden Category at the
Show this month, will be feminine
but unfussy in design, using plants
and flowers in purple, blue and white
to echo the charity's
logo. The planting
used in the garden
promotes well-being,
through medicinal,
aromatic or sensory
properties, to reflect
the charity’s work
in funding medical
scientific research.
Due to the very
personal nature of
female health issues or
illnesses, the women
affected can often
feel very isolated.
Subsequently, the
designers wanted to create a garden
where not only some of these issues
were addressed but also highlighted
the existence of a charity such as
Wellbeing of Women which funds
much needed research.
At the centre of the garden there
will be a raised small circular terrace,
representing the circle of life with a
curved stepping stone path signifying
the journey leading it. Each of the five
stepping stones will be engraved with
a decade, from the 60s to the present
day, marking the significant research
journey funded by Wellbeing of
Women over the last 50 years.
The three designers wanted this
simple circular patio to create an
intimate seating area where people
could come together and talk about
the charity and its work, with the
charity’s motto engraved: "Our
62 Landscape & Urban Design Issue 14
research for your family's future",
providing an additional focus.
The designers fell in love with the
work of artist Rachel Dein, who runs
‘Tactile Studio’ and
whose casts of flowers
and plants in clay
and concrete, create
beautiful botanical
panels. These panels
will be used in the
garden as a way to
poignantly capture
something which
is beautiful but no
longer alive; in the
same way that a
scan of a baby who
has been lost due
to miscarriage or
stillbirth, or photos
of women who have
died from gynecological cancers, can
provide comfort to grieving families.
In sharp contrast to
these panels, a section
of a Living Wall by
Biotecture was chosen
by Wendy, Claire and
Amy to make up part
of the other boundary
in the garden. This
‘living wall’ represents
the surviving women,
children and families
that the charity's work
has helped, similar to
the thriving plants.
The most difficult
challenge for the
designers was to fund the building
of the garden. Having appealed for
help, Wendy, Amy and Claire have
been completely overwhelmed at the
response from companies to help fund
the garden. Nearly every feature in or
aspect of the garden has either been
donated or lent for the duration of
the show; sawn natural stone paving
from London Stone, fencing from
Jackson’s Fencing’s Venetian range,
three multi-stemmed silver birch from
Hedgeworx, and an Urbis water bowl
to name just a few.
The most significant donation has
been from Paul Tattersall of Tattersall
Landscapes in Kent, who generously
agreed to build the garden for free, for
which the designers will be eternally
grateful.
Having given themselves such tight
parameters for the choice of plants,
the designers decided to appoint
one nursery to grow them, selecting
The Plant Co in Pulburough, West
Sussex. With many years experience in
exhibiting and selling at RHS Hampton
Court Palace Flower
Show, their help has
proven invaluable and
Claire, Amy and Wendy
have particularly
enjoyed regularly
popping in to check
on the plants’ progress.
Although the garden
will ultimately be
judged by the RHS,
the main hope for the
three designers’ is that
the garden will be
enjoyed by the show’s
visitors and that the
work of the Wellbeing of Women
charity is more widely recognised and
supported.