25 August
Our scholar wins Green Apple Award
Paul Hervey-Brookes, our second CBMS scholar, has been awarded a Green Apple award for Environmental Best Practice. This award has been made in recognition of the crevice nesting portico he designed for the Bradstone Biodivesity Garden at Chelsea this year- which marked the culmination of his year with Chris and the scholarship team. Congratulations Paul on this fantastic achievement and thanks to Bradstone for making this bespoke feature for the garden.
30 July 2010
Twittering!
Hi everyone, just to let you know that i am now on twitter and have been adding tweets over the last few days - hope to see you on there.
Chris
12 July 2010
Get up & Grow
Get Up & Grow - Chris's new three part series for BBC NI is being shown on BBC One NI and Sky Channel 973 from Monday 12th July. Chris teams up with Northern Ireland expert and presenter Colin Donaldson and the duo are tasked with helping and inspiring six families to Get Up & Grow.
Also showing on BBC iPlayer - on the following link - http://bbc.co.uk/i/t3ybs/
1 June 2010
BUPA London 10,000
Yesterday Chris ran with 13,000 other runners in the BUPA London 10,000 which winds through the streets of London. Chris was running for the Alzheimer’s Society, the nominated charity for the BUPA Great run series and they hope to beat last year's fund raising total of £1million.
Chris ran the 10K course in 40 minutes, beating his time of 44 minutes in last year's Cancer Research run and he hopes to run again for the Alzheimer's Society later this year.
26th May 2010
CBMS Scholar awarded RHS Chelsea Silver Medal
Our 2009 CBMS Scholar Paul Hervey-Brookes has been awarded an RHS Silver Medal for his 'Bradstone Biodiversity Garden' at this year's RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
The garden highlights how gardeners can create a desirable and stunning environment which works successfully for both people and wildlife, is attracting a huge amount of admiration from the public due to its rich cottage garden style planting scheme which includes beautiful golden and purple Iris, Climbing Roses and Alliums.
The garden has also been a big attraction for London’s insects too, with a variety of bees, butterflies, spiders and snails being attracted every day to the carefully selected nectar rich plants and specially designed wildlife habitats. To highlight just how many species can be attracted to a small urban space, The Wildlife Trust, London, is carrying out daily wildlife sightings on the garden and is reporting their findings on a board at the side of the garden, so the thousands of visitors to the show can see just how effective a biodiverse habitat can be.
Paul’s beautiful design combines a variety of sustainable landscape materials and includes specially designed features by Paul such as a portico for birds to nest and log walls for insect habitats. The richly planted borders include a diverse range of trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals which the team envisage will be buzzing with insects throughout the show.
The Bradstone Biodiversity Garden is the grand finale to Paul’s year as scholar on the Chris Beardshaw Mentoring Scholarship (CBMS), sponsored by Bradstone, an Aggregate Industries business. During the scholarship year, Paul has been mentored by Chris Beardshaw, who has devoted time to working alongside Paul and assisting him in developing the diverse range of skills required to create a successful career in garden design.
Through the kind support of the scholarship sponsor Bradstone, Paul has received bursaries throughout the year to fund his Malvern Autumn Show garden, this Chelsea Flower Show garden and also to assist him with course fees for a Landscape Architecture degree course at University of Gloucester. Paul has also enjoyed a week with Hillier Nurseries where he met with Robert Hillier and many of his senior staff who gave him a fascinating insight to one of our most respected and reputable plant nurseries.
Commenting on his Silver Medal Paul said, “A Silver Medal is a great for a first time design and I am delighted with how the garden turned out after so many months of planning. With the design we want to show gardeners how, without compromising the beauty of their space, they can use a few simple features to create a wonderfully biodiverse environment for many species. So I hope people will be able enjoy our garden and take away some ideas and introduce them into their own gardens.”
He continued, “This Chelsea garden marks the end of my Mentoring Scholarship which has been a very positive and challenging year for me. Working with Chris has been a once in a life time opportunity and it has provided a huge creative stimulus. It has been a fantastic and intense experience and I am very proud of the journey I have been part of. I now have a wonderful platform from which to go on and develop my design career.”
Chris Beardshaw said, “We are incredibly proud of Paul’s achievements throughout the year. He has been a wonderful scholar to work with and he is a truly passionate and creative designer. A Silver Medal is an excellent achievement for a first show garden at Chelsea, but the CBMS is not about medals it’s a learning experience. We take new design talent like Paul to Chelsea, the world’s greatest flower show, to give them an intense experience from which they can grow. I have no doubt Paul will be back again to Chelsea in the future and he is definitely a design talent to watch out for.”
New chief executive of Aggregate Industries Alain Bourguignon said: “We are always keen to support new talent in the landscape gardening industry and champion cutting edge design, which is why the Chris Beardshaw Mentoring Scholarship is an important partnership for Bradstone.”
18 May 2010
BBC TV's History of the World
Chris presents 'Ploughs, Cows and Plover' for the BBC's History of the World series. In this programme Chris explores how East Anglia has helped feed the world.
Five objects tell the story of a revolution in farming that gives the region a unique place in the history of the world. His journey takes him from north Norfolk, where 300 years ago Thomas Coke invented a new way of growing crops on the glorious Holkham Estate, to Suffolk where an accident in a foundry led to a self-sharpening blade that would be used in ploughs across the world. There was even one pulled by elephants!
Broadcast on BBC1 on 17th May 19.30 - if you missed it watch on BBC's iPlayer http://bbc.co.uk/i/sj162/
15 Mar 2010
Chris Strikes Gold in New Zealand
Chris has been awarded one of only 3 Gold medals at the Ellerslie International Flower Show in Christchurch New Zealand this week, for his largest ever show garden The Englishmans Retreat.
25 Jan 2010
Biggest Show Garden Ever!
Chris is heading off to New Zealand very soon to create the largest exhibition garden ever seen in the 15-year history of the Ellerslie International Flower Show in Christchurch.
Ellerslie, which takes place from 10-14 March 2010, is considered the equivalent of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in New Zealand, with over 100 exhibitors and 30 gardens. Chris has been invited by the organisers to produce a quintessentially English Garden for this years event.
Stretching 12 metres across the shore of Victoria Lake, the garden will extend 64 metres into the Hagley Park showground and is guaranteed to be a real show-stopper, with almost 10,000 plants, including 4500 annuals and 3000 herbaceous plants. The magnificent garden entitled “An Englishman's Retreat” will be filled with colour and fragrance, making it a real feast for all the senses.
Chris is renowned for his formal English garden designs, having won nine Gold and Silver Gilt Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) medals. Chris is delighted to be attending the Ellerslie Show for the first time. He said, “This show has a great reputation internationally. Our garden is not only the show’s largest ever exhibit but it is the largest show garden I have ever created too.”
The garden will be positioned between two grand Poplar trees on the shore of Victoria Lake, borrowing from the surrounding landscape to make the garden look like it goes on forever. The garden will have multiple viewpoints but one main axis.
Chris continued, “You will stand with your toes being tickled by the herbaceous perennials looking through a formal garden with a grand lawn leading down to a Victorian portico with classical references.”
“The borders are 3.6 metres wide, punctured with trees and shrubs so as you look towards the lake there will be a kind of rhythm in the way the structure unfolds. Underneath will be a swath of tapestry planting combinations. It’s a great challenge to create something so large and with so many plant combinations but I will be heading out to New Zealand in mid- February to start the build and I am really looking forward to the experience.”
Some of you may recall that he visited Christchurch in November to see the show ground site and meet the contractors who will work with him on the garden. He also took the opportunity to visit several local nurseries to assess what plant material was available.
He said, “This was a very interesting exercise as many of the plants I would generally like to use in a large herbaceous scheme, such as geraniums and Lupins, are not grown in New Zealand. I also had to review my idea for hedging to enclose the garden. The instant tall hedging often used for show gardens in the UK is just not available in New Zealand. They have almost perfect growing conditions for hedges to naturally grow and establish very quickly, so there is no demand or need for an instant effect. Consequently, I have had to review my planting lists for this design which has created a great opportunity to use locally sourced plant material and to experiment with different species I may not have tried before.
21 Jan 2010
Chris gives masterclass to Otley College
Chris is to give a masterclass to Otley College today to the students on the foundation degree in horticulture. Chris has worked with the course leader Jody Lidgard on many ocassions as he often joins Chris for the planting phases on Chris's show gardens, including the award winning garden in Japan, last May. Jody will be joining Chris in New Zealand in a few weeks time to tackle the challenge of planting Chris's largest ever show garden.
The students at Otley college are exhibiting at the Malvern Spring Gardening Show this May, a show Chris is hugely familiar and fond of as it's his local show and he will be giving them hints and tips on the challenges of creating a garden in a show arena.
14 Aug 2009
The Desmond Tutu Peace Garden
Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu officially opened a new garden which we created in his honour in Lewisham, on 14 July. The garden was designed to commemorate Desmond Tutus work as the founding father of peace and reconciliation.
The concept of the Desmond Tutu Peace Garden was the initial brainchild of opera singer Suzannah Clarke and was worked up with the help of my team over the course of nearly a year. Suzannah lives in Desmond Tutus former family home in Lewisham, and felt she wanted to create something to commemorate the work of the South African peace activist who had spent over a decade living and working in the area.
Even though the whole community were behind the garden project it took many months to raise the funds to make it an actuality and in the end we were left with only a couple of months between confirmation of the funding and the opening date in which to design and build the garden!
The design is based around the concept of peace so wildflower areas were created to surround the garden representing a stylised pair of hands which are holding something precious. The Peace Garden itself sits within the hands and originates from the idea that peace exists in the lea of one person making a stand. A tree, Fagus Sylvatica Rohanii, stands at the forefront of the garden, and represents the person making that stand for Peace and it acts to deflect a flow to either side of the tree. As a result, a calm void is created directly behind the tree, the Peace, has been formed and is a space where one can sit in safety and reflect.
Columnar Yew trees are suggesting people who join in the statement or stand for peace and the additional support and areas of calm they bring. The more people who join, the greater the deflection of the flow and the greater the area occupied by Peace.
14 Aug 2009
The Grasslands Trust Appeal
I hope some of you heard the appeal on Radio 4 for The Grasslands Trust on Sunday 9th August? It has been repeated but in case you didn't catch it do log onto www.grasslands-trust.org for further details of their valuable work.
03 Aug 2009
Tatton Gold and Best in Show
Delighted for everyone that the garden I designed for Cheshire's Gardens of Distinction was awarded Gold and Best in Show for the second year running. Thanks everyone.
20 May 2009
Chelsea Madness and a Silver Gilt
I have been on the chelsea show ground for nearly two weeks now - firstly helping Lindsay, our scholar, with her first experience building a show garden which has gone brilliantly and earned an RHS silver gilt medal. The whole team are so pleased and proud that it did so well. Watch out for coverage on BBC and photos of the garden will be put up on the site shortly. The other part of of my time down at Chelsea has been spent with the BBC so I have been lucky enough to get up close and personal with the gardens at plants at the show and to meet some of the talented growers who have travelled from far and wide to exhibit their plants. I hope that you manage to catch the show or visit in person to see for yourself.
28 Apr 2009
An Englishman in Japan!
Hi, I am actually over in Japan as I write this building a show garden for the Hamamatsu Festival which opens this Friday. It has been quite a challenge with 60mph winds, lashing rain and a large contracting team with only person who speaks English! To add to the excitement I have been asked to create a quintessential english garden which is an asbolute privaledge, just a little tricky when they don not grow many of the usual english plants! It is going well though and I have to congratulate the contractors who have done a fantastic and most professional job - I certainly would not have managed it without them. I am looking forward to finishing the garden tomorrow and attending the opening ceremony.
09 Mar 2009
Photography
Chris judges the International Garden Photographer of the Year competition for second year and write foreword for their new book - out later in the year
05 Dec 2008
GROW
Last week I launched the new GROW initiative at the Green Skills Crisis conference in London. I am so proud to be invovled in this new way of communicating the wealth and breadth of opportunities and careers that the horticultural industry offers. See more on www.growcareers.info Chris
22 Nov 2008
Gardeners Click wins top industry award
I attended the Garden Media Guild Awards on Thursday along with the members of the Gardeners Click team where we rubbed shoulders with everyone who is anyone in the world of garden writing, garden photography, broadcasting and generally anyone who is as enthusiastic as we are about sharing our love of plants and gardening. We were all somewhat surprised and extremely proud that Gardeners Click picked up the award for best Digital Media 2008 so if you have not visited the site yet please do take a look on www.gardenersclick.com where the online community, myself and the team will be very pleased to meet and chat with you. Happy Gardening! Chris
18 Nov 2008
Wild about your garden
My new BBC1 series Wild about your garden will be on air from tomorrow, Wednesday 19th November at 8.30pm. If you want further information about any of the programmes and details of what we did or if you want to post any comments or thoughts go to www.bbc.co.uk/wildaboutyourgarden.
27 Sep 2008
Scholarship update
Lindsay has been working away over at Malvern Showground for 10 days now. I have been popping over to see her and we have been calling and emailing with advice and guidance but today is judgement day. Our fingers are crossed for her - shes had a steep learning curve and there will be lots to chat about afterwards to ensure preparations for Chelsea go to plan. I am going to the show tomorrow and hope to get the all important phone call soon so will let you know the medal as soon as I can!
25 Sep 2008
186 Kisses later!
Last night saw me up at Chester Race Course for the glittering evening that is Britian in Bloom 2008! We worked out that I must have kissed, shaken hands, congratulated and had my photograph taken with at least 186 candidates and winners! There were some very well deserved wins but it is just so heartening to see the competition is still as strong as ever.
06 Sep 2008
Chris visits Dundee Flower Show for first time
Chris travelled up to Dundee this weekend to visit for the first time The Dundee Flower and Food Festival which celebrated its 20th Anniversary this year. Chris was amazed at the number and quality of exhibits and enjoyed meeting many of you who visited.
12 Aug 2008
Chris hands over cheque for 10,000
Chris visited pub owner Linda Warner today, owner of the Horse and Groom to hand over a cheque for 10,000. The pub was the winner of the Grants Whiskey competition to find a pub in need of some horticultural love and attention. The 18th century pub was voted for by the regular customers and Linda who has run it for 16 years was thrilled at the prospect of doing a spot of plant shopping!
08 Aug 2008
Chris becomes Hedgehog Patron
Chris is delighted to show his support for the gardeners most useful mammal by becoming Patron of The British Hedgehog Preservation Society. He said, I am thrilled to take on this role and support the good work in protecting and preserving this now threatened member of the gardening community.
Click here for more
25 Jul 2008
Chris Strikes Gold!
Chris and his team are celebrating picking up a Gold Medal and The Best in Show Award for their Celebrating Cheshire Year of Gardens 08 Show Garden at RHS Flower Show Tatton Park this week.
Click here for more
18 Jul 2008
Chris puts finishing touches to his show stopping Cheshire garden
After months of planning and weeks of digging, building and planting, Chris and his team have been putting the finishing touches to their Celebrating Cheshire Year of Gardens 08 Show Garden at RHS Flower Show Tatton which opens to the public on 23 July.
Click here for more
11 Jun 2008
Chris to design major show garden at Tatton Flower Show
This years key attraction to RHS Tatton Flower Show 2008 is a specially commissioned show garden designed by gardener and TV presenter Chris Beardshaw. The garden will celebrate Cheshires Year of Gardens 08.
09 Jun 2008
Japan Trip
Chris has just flown back from Japan and has announced that he will be designing and staging a show garden at the World Garden Competition, Japan May 2009.
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