Gardener makes her flower show debut
A novice garden designer will make her flower show debut this month – after having a eureka moment while working in a prison.
Art teacher Paula Keenan, 41, from Wigan, and colleague Liz Smith, from Culcheth, won a display spot at the Tatton Park Flower Show for the design they came up with while working with inmates at HMP Risley in Warrington.
With help from the prisoners in her art class, Paula came up with an unusual cabbage patch-style garden design. With Liz' help, they won over the judges responsible for entries thanks to their unique approach.
The garden will provide a stark contrast to the traditional flower gardens often found at the show.
Paula said: "I'm not exactly a graphic designer so I was worried that the plans would not be good enough but they fell in love with the idea of the cabbage patch."
Dubbed A Garden of Hope and Aspiration, the 4m by 6m show space has been divided into a number of sections, each representing a different stage of a prisoner's incarceration.
First come overblown Eryngium, weeds and brambles to reflect the start of a sentence, then cabbage seedlings followed by mature cabbages.
Finally ceramic cabbages, made by the prisoners during their art class, symbolise a prisoner's journey through the education system. It is the first time HMP Risley has entered a garden into a flower show.
Paula said: "Our aim was to give the men something positive to do and to encourage them to think about art not just as being something on two dimensional paper.
"Originally we were going to man a stall and put some of our art work and ceramics on show but when we received the information about the flower show we just had to go for it.
"It has kept people really upbeat and inquisitive for the last few months, it has been a really positive experience."
All the prisoners involved in designing the garden are working towards a Foundation Art qualification and many elements of the project have been built by them using just material recycled from the prison.
Judging at the show gets under way at the end of the month.
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Weather for Wigan
Tuesday 07 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -6 C to 4 C
Wind Speed: 7 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: -5 C to 0 C
Wind Speed: 6 mph
Wind direction: South east
