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Tatton Park Flower Show: Community groups create joint garden

BBC Lee Burkhill talking to team of community gardenersBBC
Lee Burkhill has worked with community groups in the region to create the garden

Five community groups have come together to create a special North West garden for RHS Flower Show Tatton Park.

The Northern Star Garden, which is the biggest at the show, features food forests, an allotment border and an Islamic paradise garden.

Designed by BBC One's Garden Rescue presenter Lee Burkhill, it also features blue sculptures representing the region's coastline and skies.

Mr Burkhill said his design showed there was "a style for everyone".

The RHS said the garden, which is a joint project between the gardening charity and BBC North West Tonight, showed "how horticulture can empower local communities and bring them together".

Community group planting tree
The Northern Star garden features more than 1,200 plants

Community groups which have worked on the garden include Rochdale Mosque's Amaani Initiative, Blackleach Allotments in Salford, Faiths 4 Change of Liverpool, Wigan and Leigh Hospice and Myerscough College Gardens.

Each group runs its own spaces which play a key role in the community.

Tahir Mahmood, vice chairman of Golden Mosque and chairman of Rochdale Council of Mosques said the mosque garden "helps create peace and tranquillity", despite the restricted space of being located in the city centre.

"If you see a beautiful place you think positively and this obviously then goes out into the community," he said.

In Salford, Joe Hunt, chairman of Blackleach Allotments, said the allotments helped to bring people from all different lifestyles together to "just enjoy the fresh air".

Louise Leyland, from Myerscough Allotments, said she had seen students' confidence grow from working on the gardens and she was looking forward to showing a diverse range of plants at Tatton.

RHS Garden design for Northern Star GardenRHS
The design features food forests, an allotment border and an Islamic paradise garden

Emma Turner-Bone from Faiths 4 Change in Liverpool said the garden maintained by volunteers in Old Swan had encouraged wildlife back to the area, which is located next to a major road, and had a "huge impact" on helping "give people a sense of well being and belonging".

In Wigan, a garden at Wigan and Leigh Hospice was described by chief executive Jo Carby as "extraordinary" and "really important" to patients.

"The intricate beauty of this garden and the plants and the trees within it are a place where we can go and find peace, whether its staff or whether its volunteers, patients or those people important to them," she said.

Gardener Jim Nicholson said: "It can be quite a difficult place here for people, so by having a beautiful space to spend some time in to walk around is really helpful for patients and for families."

Show manager for RHS Tatton Park, Lex Falleyn, said the goal of the annual flower show was to "shine a light on local talent" and identity a broad range of communities "that are gardening for good".

Woman carrying plants outside Flower School tent
The groups will take the plants back to their gardens after the show

Mr Burkhill said the Northern Star Garden represented the range of diverse gardens.

"Gardening is a really diverse practice, whether that's based on budget, style, plants or location," he said.

"Hopefully, we will show other new gardeners that there is a place for them, and there is a style for everyone."

The garden is on display at the annual flower show which runs until Sunday.

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