A COLLEGE group has launched its entry for a top gardening show, taking inspiration from medieval recipes and local ingredients.
Sparsholt College has announced this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show entry as ‘Rustic Recipes Reimagined’.
The 2023 garden, inspired by ingredients that can foraged from the surrounding countryside or grown in English gardens, has been designed by Sparsholt’s multiple-medal-winning-team including Chris Bird who is celebrating his 25th Chelsea Flower Show garden design entry as well as winning the President's Award from the Chartered Institute of Horticulture for this year.
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The exhibit found at GPA008 is based on eating seasonally and sourcing locally to create fresh, nutritious and cost-effective recipes which have been used historically to utilise native surroundings.
Students sourced ingredients from the college’s 183-hectare Hampshire campus and worked with chefs from Season Cookery School at nearby Lainston House to perfect the recipes. such as sweet fruit parchment, vibrant hedgerow salad and nettle soup, which will be highlighted within the garden.
Sparsholt College level three horticulture student, Jaz, said: “I am really excited for RHS Chelsea – I am especially interested in the conservation and the ecological benefits that our garden is looking to bring, we have lots of native planting and hedging. I cannot wait to see the garden finished – I can picture it so well in my head and am really looking forward to seeing and experiencing it.”
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The mixed hedgerow within garden design aims to show the importance of protecting biodiversity for ecological balance. The hedgerow provides shelter, food and protection to wildlife such as hedgehogs, dormice, beetles, birds, pollinators and people.
Denser hedgerows can reduce the impact of predators on species like hedgehogs which are known as ‘the gardener's friend.’
The college group is raising awareness of hedgehog protection within this garden in line with its Silver Hedgehog Friendly Campus Award, achieved in collaboration with the British Hedgehog Preservation Society and Students Organising for Sustainability UK.
The team behind ‘Rustic Recipes Reimagined’ hope to prove that no matter the size of an outdoor space, visitors can reimagine a rustic recipe to connect and defend the future of the natural world by living more sustainably, locally and seasonably.
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show will be in Royal Hospital Road from May 23 to 27. For more information go to rhs.org.uk/shows-events/rhs-chelsea-flower-show.
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