Charity wins best in show garden at Tatton Park
Howard Lake | 17 July 2007 | News
The Anthony Nolan Trust garden has been awarded the best in show garden at The Royal Horticultural Society’s Tatton Park show. Designed by newcomer to Tatton, Heather Appleton, the bubble garden is inspired by a photograph of charity founder Shirley Nolan blowing bubbles with her son Anthony.
A team of volunteers built the garden over a three-week period and almost all materials and plants are donated or loaned. Asa result this project cost less than £5,000. Heather Appleton, of Thursk, won an Anthony Nolan competition to design the garden.
Mrs Appleton said: “It was the first time I had entered the competition and I was shocked to do so well. The inspiration came from a picture I saw of Anthony Nolan blowing bubbles with his mother, Shirley, in the 1970s. The idea was in my head for a while but once I came to actually design the garden it was a quick process.”
Advertisement
The garden, while reminding visitors of the origin of the charity and its importance to the bone barrow donor register, is intended “to bring joy and stimulate conversation”. All the structures have calming curves, the focal point being the calm circular area in the centre.
Cheshire Building Society sponsored the garden and has been a long-term supporter of the Anthony Nolan Trust, including holding donor recruitment clinics at their head office in Macclesfield.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.