Spring has arrived in the UK along with the usual and much needed April showers, glimpses of sunshine and temperatures which are gradually creeping up.
With the longer days and more agreeable weather, Britain’s gardeners are emerging out of hibernation ready to turn the gardens of the cities, suburbs and countrysides into colourful, flourishing and productive spaces once again.
This also means it is time for the “world-renowned, glamorous and quintessentially British, RHS Chelsea Flower Show”. The world famous flower and landscape gardens show has been running for over 200 years. It attracts 157,000 visitors each year including members of the British royal family and representatives from across the world.
Each year world-renowned landscape gardeners create wonderful plant masterpieces and themed gardens. This year there is an especially exciting and important garden bringing the sunshine, heat and colours of Africa to central London.
The CAMFED garden
Designer Jilayne Rickards’ CAMFED (Campaign for Female Education) garden is inspired by the rural schools and small farms of Zimbabwean communities. The design is set to be bold, bright and vibrant showcasing the creativity of small scale farmers in Zimbabwe.
Through the garden Jilayne hopes to demonstrate the progressive and positive side to Africa. Recycled materials, edible plants and solar for irrigation and lighting. Futurepump has proudly supplied a solar powered irrigation pump to support the garden.
Solar powered irrigation is used more and more on small farms in the tropics to supply cheap and sustainable irrigation water to crops, grow farmers incomes and allow production to continue in the dry season. It is just one of the innovations encouraging growth in these small farming communities.
The #SeeGrowth campaign
With this garden CAMFED is launching their #SeeGrowth campaign. It is an ambitious campaign, ‘Giving Girls in Africa a Space to Grow’. Through this they are aiming to grow thousands more women-led climate smart agricultural businesses across Africa.
Follow updates from the garden all week long on social media with the hashtags #RHSChelsea #SeeGrowth #CAMFED25