Garden wins silver

A PAST student of Heathfield Community College won an award at this year's Hampton Court garden show.

Paul Stacey, along with five fellow students from his university in Chelmsford, helped build a garden at Hampton Court, which went on to win a Silver Flora Medal.

Paul, 23, is studying for his degree in landscape and amenity management at Writtle College in Chelmsford. He was approached by one of his friends to help them with the construction of the garden. He said: 'Mark Ashmead, a friend of mine, designed the garden as more of a fashion statement rather than anything else.'

'Because of what I'm studying I was asked to help build it and I thought it sounded interesting. We only had two weeks to build it in, whereas most people had three. Unfortunately we had exams!'

He added: 'When we went to the garden after the judging, the certificate had blown over and we didn't think we had won anything. Then, we went back a bit later, the certificate was visible and we found out we had won silver! We were over the moon, we couldn't stop jumping around and shouting. It was a great feeling.'

The garden, called 'Regeneration' was designed to promote conifers and their uses in the garden with a view to regenerating their popularity; the Association of British Conifer Growers sponsored the garden.

Judges of the competition commented that the garden was a clean modern design.

The design of the garden included a central water feature with a selection of conifers as well as plants, which were placed in a fan-shaped pattern around the garden, and the key plants included three different colourful varieties of junipers.

Paul's family live in Swaines Way, Heathfield.

RIGHT: Paul (foreground) and Mark pictured in their garden.