A garden created by a young couple in Holt and chosen to star in the world-famous Chelsea Flower Show will go on to help hundreds recover from trauma
Garden designers, and husband and wife, Joe and Laura Carey, have been thrilled to see the garden they dreamed up, painted and planned, taking shape in one of the most prestigious horticultural arenas in the world.
The couple, who live in Holt with their three-year-old and six-month-old daughters, and work as Carey Garden Design Studio, created a charity garden which won a place in this summer’s Chelsea Flower Show.
Joe described it as a celebration of the way creation and creativity can bring about transformation.
Their journey to Chelsea began when they learned about the charity Talitha Arts from the Rev Ian Dyble, priest-in-charge of the Weybourne group of churches, who is also a trustee of the charity, which uses the arts to help people recover from trafficking and trauma.
First, their garden was backed by Project Giving Back. ‘This is an amazing opportunity for designers to pitch a concept for a ‘garden for good causes,’’ said Joe. ‘It was a year-long process, being whittled down from hundreds of applications.’
Then they applied to the Royal Horticultural Society, which runs the Chelsea Flower Show – and were overjoyed when their garden was chosen to become part of the show.
Joe said the garden includes a large sculpted chrysalis, by Teucer Wilson of Aylsham, and hundreds of hand-made porcelain butterflies, representing transformation. Sombre, darker-toned planting, representing the trauma and bruises of the past, gives way to light and airy swathes of colour, to represent freedom and joy.
The couple have included lots of elements of Norfolk in their Chelsea charity garden. They fell in love with the county five years ago – on a trip to Little Barningham, near Holt, to visit friends.
It was the first time they had visited Norfolk and within days they were working out ways to move here. “North Norfolk and its wild windy saltmarsh beauty was a landscape that neither of us had ever really experienced before,” said Joe.
The planting for their Talitha garden was inspired by favourite places they have discovered in north Norfolk including the dappled shade and woodland of Sheringham Park, and grasses creating texture, movement and sound on the saltmarshes of Salthouse and Cley.
‘Many of our rare and unusual plants have been grown in Norfolk nurseries, such as Natural Surroundings in Glandford and The Plantsman's Preference in Diss,’ said Joe. Steel for the garden was fabricated by North Norfolk Engineering in Holt.
Laura and Joe met at university where she was studying decorative arts and he was studying design and technology. He went on to teach design, while Laura worked for a marketing company and ran a screen print business from home, selling her botanical illustrations to shops around the country.
‘We started to think about something we could work on together,’ said Joe. ‘Gardens was the immediate choice, as we already spent every minute of spare time in our own garden.’
‘Laura is never not thinking about plants. As a designer she has a clear eye for colour, structure and tone. I come from a design and engineering background, meaning I naturally gravitate towards materials and physical space.’
The garden they created together at their former home in Luton was featured on the front of BBC Gardeners World magazine, having been voted runner up in its Garden of the Year competition.
When the Chelsea Flower Show is over Joe and Laura will rebuild the Talitha garden in its permanent location at St Margaret's House in Bethnal Green, London, where it will become a retreat and performance space for the charity.
Laura and Joe are accustomed to moving gardens, bringing many favourite plants with them to Norfolk, which will eventually go with them to a permanent home.
Until then they are making the most of their new Norfolk surroundings.
‘Since moving to Norfolk, we have been renting a beautiful house on its own in a former quarry,’ said Joe. ‘We have a luscious backdrop of woodland banks, complete with owls, deer and the occasional birds of prey that make us feel utterly immersed in nature.’
careygardendesign.co.uk talitha.org.uk
