It wasn’t just Olympians and Paralympians returning to Nottingham with medals this summer. City-based horticultural experts, Hosta Consulting, took Gold for their ‘drop of urban green’ inspired garden from this year’s Royal Horticultural Show at Tatton Park.
Just a few months on, Hosta has brought the garden home, reinstating it at Manvers Court in Sneinton. The team, which has worked with Nottingham City Homes (NCH) on a number of projects, vowed to bring the garden back to one of the city’s communal spaces, so tenants and residents have the chance to make the most of the award-winning design.
Hosta worked with Nottingham-based ground working specialists, Thomas Bow, to create an urban pocket park inspired garden for display at the RHS Tatton Park flower show in July this year. The garden represents what can be achieved in unused and unloved pockets of space in towns and cities across the world.
Originating in the USA, research has found pocket parks and green infrastructure are hugely important for cities, providing a restorative environment away from these stresses of a busy city. They also provide little green corridors for wildlife such as pollinators to visit and help cool and improve the air quality in towns and cities. Residents will now be able to enjoy this drop of green space on their doorstep.
Nottingham City Homes’ Chief Executive, Nick Murphy, said: “We’re committed to transforming Nottingham’s neighbourhoods and creating homes and places where people want to live. So being able to bring something so special back to Nottingham and make it available as a communal space for some of our tenants, is truly very special.
“I’m looking forward to seeing how the garden develops as it settles into its new environment, and just what a difference it makes to the residents living here.”
Wide ranging research has shown the positive impact of green spaces on a person’s mental health, helping to tackle anxiety, depression and stress. A recent study by the University of Edinburgh discovered a person’s stress level was directly linked to the amount of green space in their direct surroundings, suggesting the more green space that surrounds them, the less stressed a person is likely to be.
Ed Higgins, Architectural and Landscape Designer at Hosta Consulting, said: ”The garden at Manvers Court is part of a re-landscaping scheme which aims to improve residents’ environment and promote biodiversity.
“The relocation of the RHS Tatton Park garden, ‘A drop of urban green’, originally envisaged as an urban pocket park, has been placed at Manvers Court to provide residents with a place to relax and enjoy the British-native wildflowers. At RHS Tatton Park show one of the key aims of the garden was to highlight the benefits of exposure to nature, including stress-reduction and anxiety.”
The garden not only features a range of planting, landscaping and seating areas, it also includes the words of local poet, Ben Norris, who’s poem ‘Salvage Yourself’ is inscribed on the wall of the garden.
His words, designed to inspire those sitting in the garden to relax and leave the stresses of everyday life behind, will now be on display for NCH tenants for years to come.