With the Wimbledon Championships and the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show now in full swing, summer is definitely here.
And when we were asked to contribute some of our Jakob stainless steel wire ropes for the RHS Kitchen Garden at Hampton Court, we were delighted to say yes. Particularly when we heard that the garden was being designed to champion edible growing and to promote different ways of growing fresh food at home.
Created by award-winning designer, Juliet Sargent, the Kitchen Garden features fruit trees, edible flowers vegetables and herbs grown in pots, planters, beds and vertically. And that’s where our Jakob Green Wall system comes in, with its wire (or mesh) trellis having been designed to encourage plants to grow up, giving structure, shape and elegance to any garden.
The garden has been developed jointly by the RHS and BBC One’s Saturday Kitchen, with the programme being broadcast live from Hampton Court on Saturday 8 July. A spin-off series ‘Kitchen Garden Live with the Hairy Bikers’, is also being broadcast live from the garden at 11.00am every day this week.
A range of herbs has been selected to climb up the stainless steel wire trellis and to add life, colour and interest to the design – as well as useful ingredients for the various dishes that will be created during the week!
Juliet said: “Through this new partnership at the world’s largest flower show, we want to demonstrate to people, communities and organisations that it can be easy, cheap and fun to grow what you eat at home, in public spaces, at work, in fact anywhere you like!
“Many people can be put off, especially if they have limited space, because they don’t expect an edible garden to be visually appealing. So, we also want to show that growing food can be done in a beautiful, contemporary and stylish way.”
We supplied stainless steel wire rope assemblies and Webnet; being lightweight, fast and easy to install, the system was perfect for the tight build programme and the end result is an interesting, unusual and engaging display – which happens to also look stunning!
Now we’re just waiting for that call to work on centre-court; having already supplied our systems to a wide range of projects (including London’s Olympic Park, The London Monument, Wembley Stadium and The Cutty Sark), we know our living wall would look great there too!
