Talented young gardeners are medal winners at RHS Chelsea Flower Show
Long time readers will recall our coverage of YSSC technical advisor, Bob Wells's visit to Askham Bryan College last year.
"Harry Turner of Askham Bryan College in York was keen to improve on his team’s fifth place position in last year’s WorldSkills Competition and thus approached us for advice," says Bob, "Following a site visit and consultation with the team to ascertain their needs, I was able to recommend and demonstrate a Leica Builder Total Station."
"The Leica Builder series is packed with features for both surveying and setting out and offers reflectorless ranges of up to 250 metres," Bob continues, "The instrument they chose is ideally suited to the team’s task as it offers a highly cost-effective, yet accurate way of setting out the area to be used and also checking their completed work to the judges’ tolerances. It is much better than their then current method of ‘tapes and spirit levels’."
Naturally, York Survey have followed the team's progress in the run up to the WorldSkills Competition and were delighted to hear of their recent success at the prestigious Chelsea Flower Show, where they won a highly creditable Silver Medal.
Their award winning garden entitled: “Growing World Class Talent: celebrating the workforce of tomorrow”, features a variety of edible, ornamental and native plants and showcases the wide range of skills required to construct an outdoor space suitable for 21st century living. The garden was judged in the Urban Garden category and was created for UK Skills, the not for profit organisation that champions skills and learning for work through competitions and awards.
The team, all under the age of 25, includes Keith Chapman, 24, from Richmond and Grant Finch, 19, of Scarborough, who have both gained their horticultural qualifications at Askham Bryan College. The team was supported by a number of horticulture students from the College who also travelled down to London. The designer was Paul Green, a York based chartered landscape architect and designer who has been involved with Askham Bryan College for many years.
Liz Philip, College Principal said: “This is absolutely wonderful news, and their success is richly deserved. Askham Bryan College is renowned for the high standard of its horticultural education but to win a medal at Britain's flagship show is an amazing achievement. Congratulations to everyone involved.”
The team created the garden from scratch using a wide range of skills including, landscape gardening, bricklaying, electrical installation, cabinet making, plumbing, plantsmanship, floristry and stonemasonry.
Keith Chapman, a key member of the team said: "We all worked really hard and are proud of what we have managed to achieve. We hope that visitors will take the time to really look around the garden and start to learn just how much hard work actually goes into landscape gardening".
