A Big Help From Our Friends – Many Thanks
This garden would not be anywhere near as brilliant if it weren’t for the generosity of our cross-industry donators and collaborators. I would like to thank them personally for their support, not just financially, but in giving time and expertise along the way.
So, to name names …………
The Eden Project
“The Eden Project’s mission is to explore our dependence on the natural world, to use that understanding to excite people into delivering transformation where they live and to ask really serious questions about what a great future might look like for all of us. Our home in Cornwall, UK, is a striking contemporary garden for the 21st century combining botanical garden, plant collection, park and visitor destination. It is a living theatre of plants and people. The brainchild of Sir Tim Smit, Eden is an educational charity that connects people with each other and the living world.”
The Eden Project’s incredibly horticultural expertise coupled with fantastic growing conditions, has allowed us to showcase some unusual plants which have not been seen at Chelsea before.
And of course, the legacy of the CAMFED garden will live on at Eden after the show.
CED Stone Group
“Inspiring beautiful landscapes for over 40 years, CED Stone Group provides the most extensive range of quality natural stone and hard landscaping products on the market. Taking a collaborative approach, the teams at CED use their expert knowledge to help clients choose the perfect materials for a range of landscape projects.”
CED Stone Group have donated the beautiful rocks for our garden, along with transport around the UK and to site and allowing us a day at West Thurrock for our rock rehearsal – and they have the best sense of humour too.
Futurepump
“It is Futurepump’s mission to displace the use of hydrocarbon-powered water pumps and alleviate the manual irrigation efforts of smallholder farmers in the tropics. Futurepump is a manufacturer of efficient and durable solar irrigation pumps which are sold through a global network of distributors. Futurepump solar pumps are specifically designed to give smallholder farmers in the tropics a sustainable option for irrigation especially where dry season irrigation offers big opportunities to increase incomes but traditional methods are inefficient, expensive and/or unsustainable.”
We are grateful to be able to showcase a solar panel that fuels the pump, lights, irrigation system and we were also donated some solar study lamps.
People and Gardens
People and Gardens supports people with learning disabilities and mental health issues, and uses horticulture and a medium to promote physical and emotional wellbeing, to learn work and social skills, and to be able to take control over their own lives.
The relationship with People and Gardens was described by the Eden Project recently as having had, in terms of social impact, more than any other in the last 20 years.
We are very proud to have some wonderful plants on our garden grown by this fabulous charity.
Europlants
I have been using this independent nursery throughout my garden design career and they never fail to deliver excellent plants with a personal touch and professional service. All the staff are 100% dedicated and even under extreme pressure still manage to make me feel important, even if my order is small. With strong connections across Europe, they are able to supply an enormously wide range of plants that allows me to be versatile and creative in my use of plants
For the CAMFED garden they are kindly storing all our imported plants, hardening them off from heated poly tunnel, to poly tunnel with vents to outdoors and delivering to site. This is one area I am not concerned about at all – they never let me down.
Allgreen Group
“Market leader of bespoke stone & landscape products, offering a unique range of natural products and materials to create distinguished and luxury landscapes. Allgreen Group has a strong culture of passion which is reflected in our extraordinary people who everyday create solutions, inspire innovation and provide outstanding service.”
We are grateful for the donation of transport costs for the red soil.
Harvest Plus
“HarvestPlus works to develop and promote staple food crops with higher amounts of micronutrients that are critical for good health—specifically, vitamin A, iron, and zinc. The crops are developed through a conventional breeding process known as biofortification. HarvestPlus also facilitates independent research on the nutritional and socio-economic impact of biofortification, and we collaborate with hundreds of partners worldwide to catalyze biofortified food systems.”
Zoological Society of London
“We’re ZSL (Zoological Society of London), an international conservation charity, and our vision is a world where wildlife thrives. We’re working every day to achieve this, through our science, our field conservation around the world and engaging millions of people through our two Zoos, ZSL London and ZSL Whipsnade Zoos.”
ZSL have kindly donated a Puff Adder snakeskin for inclusion to the CAMFED garden. These snakes are common in Zimbabwe and give a sense of reality to the scheme – women working outdoors have to deal with these snakes. We are grateful too for the loan of cameras for filming our garden during construction. These cameras are generally used to observe wildlife ranging from hedgehogs to tigers!
