Harrogate Flower Show garden border donated to charity

A garden border designed by Jo Manfredi-Hamer for the recent Harrogate Flower Show is to be donated to charity Leeds Mind.

The plants used are being donated by Yorkshire nursery Johnsons of Whixley to the Leeds Mind garden at Clarence House in Horsforth.

Worth more than £1,500, the plant varieties include Taxus, Prunus lusitanica, Malus ‘Evereste’, Viburnum tinus, Hebe ‘Green Globe’, heathers, Choisya ‘Sundance’, Heuchera and Tiarella.

Manfredi-Hamer’s design also included a red willow-waved fox and a wired hedgehog by sculptor Emma Stothard. The border was designed to encourage visitors to reduce pollution and support biodiversity in urban areas, as well as highlighting the mental health benefits gardens can provide.

Leeds Mind promotes positive mental health and wellbeing and provides help and support to anyone who needs it in and around Leeds. Services it offers include counselling, employment support, suicide bereavement and mental health training.

Manfredi-Hamer says: “It’s been a tough few years for the garden at Leeds Mind because the pandemic meant the staff and volunteers couldn’t get in to give it the attention it needed. So, it’s great to be donating the gorgeous plants from Johnsons to them. I know they are delighted with the donation. To be able to highlight ways in which plants can help environmental issues at the same time is the icing on the cake.”