The smallest ever garden at Chelsea packs a punch, highlighting an important message
The smallest ever show garden ever to be created at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show has been unveiled.
Entitled ‘The Green Gap’, it measures just 4.2m square, and features a cube of concrete. A crack within it is filled with wild flowers.
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The garden has been created by Grow to Know, the grassroots non-profit created in the wake of the Grenfell tragedy, which campaigns for equal access to green space. It is spearheaded by its founders, Tayshan Hayden-Smith and garden designer Danny Clarke.
!["Designers]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/18/2023/05/ChelseaFlowerShowGrow2KnowEdit02-8f45d83.jpg?quality=90&resize=609%2C413" "\"Designers")
The garden has a stark but simple message: to raise awareness of the lack of green space available to the most deprived households in one of the wealthiest but unequal boroughs in the UK. It is a 1:10 scale representation of the green space available to the worst served residents living in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, where the show takes place.
The Green Gap garden features local plants and weeds, including dandelion, thyme and camomile that residents would expect to find in the streets of the local community, just a stone’s throw away from the grounds of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
!["Danny]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/18/2023/05/ChelseaFlowerShowGrow2KnowEdit04-c25f3e7.jpg?quality=90&resize=586%2C413" "\"Danny")
The community driven charity has partnered with urban planning and design practice, Prior + Partners, to reveal the shocking inequalities in access to green space and life expectancy between those living near Grenfell compared to the wealthiest households nearby.
!["A]("https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/18/2020/05/Press-RHS-Chelsea-Flower-Show-2017-Press-Day-in-London-2-355eaa3-scaled.jpg?quality=45&resize=556,556" "\"A")
The data reveals that of the worst served residents in Notting Dale, the ward where Grenfell is situated and Grow to Know was born, have access to only 42m square of public parks and gardens per person within a 1km radius (12min walk) – the equivalent of just three parking bays. In comparison, their neighbours less than two miles away in the best served area, Queen’s Gate, lhave access to 2,149m square, the equivalent of two five‐a‐side football pitches.
Grow to Know is on a mission to close the green divide by improve green spaces in local communities through its partnerships and projects with organisations such as Penguin, the Natural History Museum and Nike. To find out more visit www.growtoknow.org.uk
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