Garden shows how city orchards work

Wednesday 9th May 2012

An urban orchard created by landscape designer and broadcaster Chris Beardshaw will be unveiled at Malvern Spring Gardening Show.

Urban Oasis has been devised by Groundwork and the Royal Horticultural Society to demonstrate how food growing can take off in the unlikeliest of places.

The garden is inspired by an orchard planted in a scrap of land amongst high rise blocks of flats in north London and demonstrates how easily plants and trees can soften the hostility of concrete. It features portable allotments planted into aggregate bags to show how the smallest place can be used to grow food.

Chris Beardshaw, who visited a number of Groundwork community green space projects this year, said: "The green space around us, where we live and work, has a fundamental effect on our emotions and behaviour. It is well documented that in areas where these spaces are neglected and poorly designed we see strong evidence of social unrest and it is easy to see why when you stand in these spaces yourself.

"Whatever the green need there is a solution and contrary to popular belief it doesn't have to mean high cost, the Urban Oasis Gardens showcase designs solutions which can make such a difference in people's lives."

In Worcestershire large orchards are commonplace, but an average town orchard will contain between six and 21 trees.

The show garden, sponsored by Marks & Spencer and Three Counties Agricultural Society, will be exhibited at the show, which runs from May 10 to 13 at the Three Counties Showground.

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