Here is a great way to make use of a Chelsea Flower Show garden:
Greenpeace take RHS Chelsea Flower Show to Heathrow
by Matthew Appleby
HortWeek.com
20 May 2009
Greenpeace are protesting about Heathrow airport expansion by planting landscape designer Thomas Hoblyn’s Chelsea garden near the runway.
Chelsea Flower Show is being transplanted to Sipson, the village earmarked for demolition to make way for Heathrow’s third runway. on 25 May.
Top landscape designers are teaming up with Greenpeace to move and replant hundreds of plants from this year’s show, to highlight the devastation the third runway will cause.
Leading the way is landscape designer Tom Hoblyn, who will be donating some of the plants from his silver medal-winning F&C Investments’ garden that highlights the impact of climate change. Other designers have also agreed to donate plants.
Guerrilla gardeners will take plants from Chelsea after it closes on Saturday to the Greenpeace ‘Airplot’ allotment in Sipson on Bank Holiday Monday, under the direction of guerilla gardener Richard Reynolds.
Thomas Hoblyn said: “The garden highlights the plant species that are most adaptable and also most vulnerable to sudden climatic change. Normally those species that we now consider most at risk would have generations to adapt to climatic change, something they have done for thousands of years. Unfortunately due to the sheer scale of man’s activities, both plant and animal species are being wiped out.
“Governments only have a limited time to act and doing the same old thing as we have always done, is not the answer. Expanding airports, such as Heathrow, will only encourage more aviation, which will only increase CO2 levels. Taken in isolation, this initiative makes absolutely no sense. My hope is that the plans will be dropped and that the plants that go to Sipson will be allowed to thrive for generations to come. “
Zac Goldsmith, co-owner of Greenpeace’s land in Sipson, added: “I’m pleased to be supporting Thomas Hoblyn’s climate change garden. This is a clear reminder that climate change is the greatest threat facing the planet. The garden, with the “Guardian of the Environment” statue, represents the role we must all embrace. So many of us are already doing our bit, but the Government continues to take us in completely the wrong direction with its commitment to building more runways and coal plants. I’m delighted to hear that plants from the show will be making their way to the site of the third runway. I hope they’ll help us keep the asphalt away.”
Visit the Daily Telegraph site for more information:
May 27th, 2009 at 12:14 am
Please remember that part of Harmondsworth will be demolished and people (real human beings!!!) will lose their homes. The people remaining on the boundary of the expanded airport will continue to suffer blight with 24 hours of noise, light and air pollution.