The Garden

This month we’re thrilled to be working with Jo Manfredi Hamer, providing stone for her garden at the Harrogate Flower Show. The Mental Health Garden aims to reflect features of mental health suffering and recovery. It has been sponsored by various suppliers and is proudly supporting Leeds MIND.

Our Products

Stone Warehouse were asked to support the garden by supplying a range of pebbles and cobbles. These are to fill gabion baskets and flooring areas. Jo will be using our dark Ebony Black Cobbles to symbolise depression. These then transform to paler Cotswold Cobbles indicating recovery with counselling and support.

Also our Duck Egg Pebbles and Ebony Black Pebbles have been chosen for the base of the gabions. They will also be used to create the central semi-colon to raise mental health awareness.

Concept and Design

We caught up with Jo to find out about her experience of the build so far and ask all of the questions you might want to know about the garden!

Jo is originally from Derbyshire, which is our home too so we wanted to know, do you ever pull inspiration from the Derbyshire dales and countryside when designing gardens?

I have always loved the countryside in Derbyshire, especially the rolling hills of Matlock where I went to school. I definitely draw inspiration from beautiful gardens in Derbyshire when designing my own gardens. Also Chatsworth House gardens are a firm favourite of mine.

How did you come to be designing a show garden at the Harrogate Flower Show?

I have wanted to design a garden raising mental health awareness for some time now. The Harrogate Flower Show represented a brilliant opportunity to do that. I expressed an interest in designing for the Show and they said they really wanted me to be part of it. I had previously designed a border at the Autumn Harrogate Flower show and wanted to try my hand at a full garden this time.

Preparation

How has the preparation for your garden at the Harrogate Flower Show been going?

Anything crucial has been ordered but I haven’t seen everything yet! There is a huge amount of work that goes into preparing for a show – from organising delivery of sculpture to insurance and deciding how everything will be put together.

Have you encountered any stumbling blocks so far?

I’ve been to site and it is very slopey so that will be a challenge but nothing we cannot cope with. The landscaper I am using at the show (Nicholas Edward Gardens) is experienced in such matters.

Can you talk us though the decision on using gabions in the garden and why you have chosen the Ebony Black, Duck Egg and Cotswold Cobbles/Pebbles?

The gabions are a key part of the garden. They will contain dark coloured cobbles to symbolise how sufferers feel they are depressed. These then change into paler coloured cobbles as they recover with counselling and support. Additionally the Ebony Black and Cotswold cobbles look fabulous together and will really help to get the point across. The Duck Egg pebbles will provide beautiful ground cover around the gabions.

Could you let us know why you contacted us to supply the products?

Stone Warehouse had all the colours and sizes I needed. They really do have a vast array of cobbles and pebbles to suit every garden style.

The Mental Health Garden

The Mental Health Garden was part of the Harrogate Flower Show which was on from the 25th – 28th April. We visited Jo during the build and below is a quick video of the final preparations!

Jo Manfredi Hamer is an award winning garden designer based in Yorkshire. For more information about Jo and her work visit her website. The garden was built by the team at Nicholas Edward Gardens.