A New Forest garden created by people with learning disabilities has scooped a top BBC award.
Furzey Gardens in Minstead has been awarded ‘Best Beautiful Border 2023’ at the BBC Gardener’s World Spring Fair in Beaulieu.
The small show garden produced by the team received a Platinum Medal as well as being named Best Beautiful Border at the three-day event, which ran until Sunday.
The garden features plants grown at Furzey Gardens and was constructed by people with learning disabilities and the gardening team.
Pete White, Furzey Gardens’ head gardener, said: “This is the end point of a long journey that started months ago.
"We are so grateful to the whole team who have worked together, people we support, the volunteers and everyone who helped to get everything to site in the pouring rain on Monday.
“Assembly has been relatively straightforward, we had all the plants and we knew the look we wanted and by the time we were finishing, I knew we had something special.
“I am really pleased that we have achieved this, it means a lot to Furzey Gardens.”
READ MORE: Green-fingered residents transform former fly-tipping hotspot
Entitled ‘Not all those who wander are lost’, the garden was inspired by the poem ‘The Riddle of Strider’ by J.R Tolkien.
Its theme reflects its role as a place of support, training, and tranquillity for people with learning disabilities for over 30 years.
As part of the charity Minstead Trust, the garden supports dozens of people every week to learn horticultural skills, improve their wellbeing, and work towards employment.
Henry, who is supported at Furzey Gardens, said: “I helped with the build on Tuesday and I think that the garden looks very nice. I am so proud that we won.”
The award-winning show garden design features many thriving plants, including Rhododendron montroseanum, shuttlecock ferns, hosta, and Candelabra primulas.
At the end of a stepping stone path in the garden, a grand chair carved from the trunk of an old Elm tree stands in one corner covered by a canopy of thatch.
The chair was carved with a chainsaw by Maxie Lane in the 1970s, out of the same Elm tree that the Giant’s Table at Furzey Gardens was made from.
Andrew Bentley, estate manager at Furzey Gardens, said: "Everyone involved has done such a good job to achieve this result.
“From the gardeners and nursery staff, to volunteers and of course the people with learning disabilities that we support.
“We are incredibly proud that we have won this award that the whole team can share.”
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here