Wasted wins a large gold medal and the Mike Hough Memorial Ttrophy
This year our garden is entitled 'Wasted' and captures two elements within the garden; the creative re-use of waste materials from our properties and the geological makeup of our area.

The construction industry has been tasked with reducing its output of waste and we have been working closely with our suppliers for a number of years to make sure that materials are reused and recycled where possible.

See three of the ways we have reduced waste.

The garden is really a celebration of this.  However we didn't want to create a design that was merely a slave to recycled materials – it had to look good too and be the kind of garden you would like to replicate in your own outdoor space.
With this in mind the Trust worked with designers Teresa Rham and Mike Vout and decided to use the waste materials to showcase another aspect of the region, its geology.
The entire region is geologically rich, with the Wrekin in particular having some of the oldest rock formations in the county.  More information about the areas geology can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology_of_Shropshire

So we decided to create walls within the garden made from the waste materials which resemble 'strata'.  We used:

Roofing tiles – The orange layer of the strata is made from crushed roof tiles from homes where re-roofing has taken place.
Bathroom tiles – the white layer of the strata is made from crushed bathroom tiles.  These have been removed from properties that have undergone a bathroom upgrade.
Roofing felt – the square felt was all cut by hand and gives the strata its distinctive black layer.
Bark – this material gives texture to the top of the strata walls.
Rubble - rubble usually created from home refurbishments has been used to give the strata its grey layer and chunky texture.

To contrast with this, a cool planting scheme was chosen which includes purples, lilacs, blues, whites and greens with particular emphasis on the foliage of the plants.  Trees also give height and interest to the garden – in fact the trees used are the same kind as those which lined the aisle of Westminster Abbey for the Royal Wedding, Acer campestre 'Elstrijk'.  You can find a full plant list in the link on the right hand side of this page.

The addition of a seating area provides the perfect spot for a relaxing rest while light reflecting water pools add interest and again soften the overall effect of the garden.

All of the hard landscaping materials used were crushed by hand to achieve the desired size and natural random shaping.  The Trust's own trade and landscape teams have volunteered their time to help build the garden and have spent hours gathering and crushing the materials.  The strata panels were then constructed off site by the teams before being assembled at the Flower Show.

See the finished garden.

See how the garden was built.