CED Stone helps Team CAMFED bring a little bit of Africa to RHS Chelsea
A visit to CED Stone’s Scotland depot has helped CAMFED bring a bit of rural Zimbabwe to a London flower show and highlight a campaign to empower young women in marginalised communities.
As part of its 25th-anniversary celebrations, the not-for-profit organisation will have a show garden at RHS Chelsea for the first time. The CAMFED Garden – named Giving Girls in Africa a Space to Grow - is designed to draw attention to the urgent need to educate young women in some of the world’s impoverished communities, and their campaign to grow 1,000 women-led agricultural businesses across Africa.
CAMFED CEO Lucy Lake said: “We are delighted to bring the surroundings of rural Zimbabwe to one of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show’s prestigious show gardens. This innovative garden design illustrates how we support girls in the classroom and beyond, to reach their full potential.”
The garden will feature bright colours and bold plants, presenting crops and flowers common to Zimbabwe. It will be beautiful, but also productive, as many of the plants in the garden will be edible, representing the importance horticulture has in Zimbabwe as a source of food and income. The garden will also feature an outdoor learning space and will showcase biofortified crops.
After the show, the garden will live on at The Eden Project in Cornwall, allowing more people to learn from the garden and enjoy its beauty.
The garden has been designed by Jilayne Rickards, a first-timer at RHS Chelsea, who travelled to Zimbabwe and met with a CAMFED partner community for research. Her design took inspiration from the people she met there and the places she toured. An example of this is the outdoor classroom in the design, which is based on a school she visited. The hard landscaping in the design reflects the landscapes she experienced on her trip, including the iconic red soil and the incredible Balancing Rocks of Zimbabwe.
These rocks are the elements of the garden in which Jilayne and contractor, Conway Landscapes required support. Cormac Conway, Director of the award-winning garden construction company, is a self-confessed show garden addict. It was he who recommended Jilayne get in touch with CED having worked with the company in the past. Jilayne discussed her requirements with CED Stone MD Giles Heap and she and Cormac were invited to visit the six-acre yard at the Castlecary depot.
There, Jilayne and Cormac met Depot Manager Mark Kenny and the Castlecary team. Jilayne states: “To ensure the authenticity of the Zimbabwean theme that runs through the CAMFED RHS Chelsea garden, I absolutely had to see the rocks before including them – they must be the right colour and size which can’t be done from photos, so a visit to CED Castlecary was essential.”
Most of their day was spent selecting boulders while battling the cold Scottish winds. Jilayne recalls: “Once I had decided which to use, we did a quick mock-up on site to check that the sizes would work well together. This will save loads of valuable time when we construct the garden and was great fun too – the absolute designer classic of left a bit, right a bit.” After much manoeuvering by Yard Foreman Pat Hughes in the forklift and by Hiab driver Jim Wilson with the grab, the boulders were eventually positioned in a way that Jilayne and Cormac were happy with.
Satisfied with their chosen boulders, they were then taken by Mark Kenny to a local site which had some red sandstone stock. Fortunately, the rocks were found to be a perfect size and colour, and around 4 tonnes was selected. Jilayne explained: “The stone will be cleaned off to remove moss and reveal their beautiful colours. I am so excited to be using them as a focal structure in the garden that gives a sense of place and directly relates to the Zimbabwean landscape.”
Left in Team Castlecary’s capable hands the stones were washed and sent south of the border to the London East Depot to await RHS Chelsea, which opens on May 21st.
CED is delighted to be supporting the CAMFED garden and has very much enjoyed working with Jilayne and Cormac. The team look forward to seeing the garden in all its colourful glory and wish Jilayne and the crew the very best of luck for the show and CAMFED great success in its campaign.
Ends
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