“In the Pink!”

Thursday 29th July 2004

Two garden design students have been given the chance to display their work at this year’s Hampton Court Palace flower show.

Fern Alder and Wendy Smith impressed the Royal Horticultural Society with their garden “Looking at the World through Rose Tinted Spectacles”. Inspired by the Kent estuary it includes a massive polycarbonate wall filled with pink liquid so visitors can view the funky creation “in the pink”.

Fern, who is studying garden design at Hadlow College near Tonbridge in Kent, was delighted to be given the chance to show her work. She said: “I couldn’t believe it when I received my acceptance letter. The idea is to create a sensual and inviting living space combining funky and kitsch elements with a strong emphasis on colour both in the hard landscaping and in the planting.

“The wall was a wonderful idea but has proved difficult to make a reality – it really has been a feat of design and engineering on the part of Ultraframe, the leading designer and manufacturer of conservatory roofing systems”.

The planting for the garden is a delicious ‘organised disarray’ – a combination of soft colourful planting at the front combined with wildflowers, umbellifers and spikey-headed plants. Fibreglass resin chairs, sedum matting and a recycled rubber aggregate pathway, combine to create the effect of the crazy channels and estuary in the tidle part of the Medway.

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