Queen admires Eden Project's Silver Medal winning 'Places of Change' Garden
Accoya, the world's leading high technology wood from Accsys Technologies, is featured in a variety of uses in a unique, sustainable garden which has won a coveted Silver Medal at this year's Chelsea Flower Show.
The garden, entitled 'Places of Change', is a collaboration between national housing and regeneration delivery agency the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), the Eden Project, national membership charity for frontline homelessness agencies Homeless Link, and Communities and Local Government (CLG).
The purpose of the garden was to employ the skills of socially disadvantaged or excluded people at every stage, from its design to growing the plants within it and building the component parts, thereby providing them with experience and training to equip them for future work opportunities. HM The Queen walked all round the garden on her visit to Chelsea on Monday and had a long conversation with Paul Stone, its designer and coordinator, about the vision behind it.
Paul Clegg, CEO of Accsys, the company behind Accoya wood, comments: "We are delighted to have contributed to the creation of this unique garden and I would like to congratulate everyone involved in this ambitious and worthwhile project. The carpentry skills and knowledge required to construct the Accoya wood items has provided a great training opportunity to nurture talent and support employment prospects for all the individuals involved. Accoya has many qualities but it is specifically its Class 1 durability that makes it suitable for use in landscaping and outdoor furniture."
The 'Places of Change' garden is the largest Show Garden ever seen at Chelsea. The raised planters, bench, compost bins and decking in the Garden are all made of Accoya wood, which combines natural beauty, outstanding durability and dimensional stability with the virtues of fast growing, sustainable wood. This highly durable wood will last at least 50 years above ground and 25 years in contact with or below ground.
The Accoya wood team worked with homelessness charity St Mungo's to construct the Accoya wood items. They were crafted in WoodWorks, the St Mungo's wood workshop in West London, where homeless people develop new skills that will enable them to move on to further training and qualifications to help turn their lives around long-term.
Paul Stone, The Eden Project's award-winning garden designer says: "The RHS is trying to make sure the Chelsea Flower Show is more sustainable and what we are doing in the Eden Project garden is true to that vision. We chose Accoya as it is a sustainable, high performance wood that can be used in-ground as well as above ground. Not only is it is FSC certified but it is also durable, attractive and extremely versatile, meaning that we can use it across a wide variety of applications in our garden. The fact that it is non-toxic and recyclable adds to its credentials as the perfect wood for a sustainable garden."