Erica’s silver lining for ‘recycled’ garden (From Ilkley Gazette)

Rawdon woman wins silver medal in Royal Horticultural Society show

7:30am Sunday 1st July 2012 in News

An amateur gardener from Rawdon has won a silver medal in a prestigious competition for the second year in a row.

Erica Ward won the Royal Horticultural Society medal at the BBC Gardeners’ World Live Show at the NEC for a creation made from recycled material.

She also won a silver medal at last year’s event for her urban roundabout garden, consisting of abandoned supermarket trolleys, salvaged drainage pipes and bricks.

Her latest work – entitled Growing Closer – was based on the theme of bringing people together.

She said: “We achieved an RHS silver medal, which was a fantastic result, and the garden and its recycled metal tree proved to be a really popular talking point.

 “The garden was called Growing Closer, and was inspired by Hallmark Cards’ philosophy to bring people closer together. It included recycled and donated materials, and all the plants and planters have all been donated to a local children’s hospice in Brighouse – Forget Me Not.”

 The garden featured a rusty tree made from recycled bottles and tools as its focal point.

Erica said she had tried to create a sense of community with her garden, and that countless members of the community had contributed to building it.