Leeds City Council’s gold medal-winning HESCO Garden 2010 has made more history at the world-famous RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

After the show garden gave the council’s Parks and Countryside Service their first-ever top award for excellence on Tuesday, event organisers the Royal Horticultural Society have confirmed the success is the first of its kind ever by a local authority at Chelsea.

LCC at Chelsea flower show

After scouring their record books, the organisers informed the team at Chelsea that their exceptional achievement is the first gold medal won for an outdoor show garden by any local authority entry in the history of the event which dates back to 1862.

The stunning elite show garden entry The HESCO Garden 2010, produced by the council’s Parks and Countryside staff with engineering design and support from sponsors HESCO Bastion Limited, wowed the judges and visitors alike to earn the highest-ranking level of award at the prestigious event in London.

The gold medal is a first for Leeds at Chelsea after earning two successive Silver Gilt Flora awards in the last two years and either silver or bronze category awards with their five other previous show gardens dating back to their first appearance at Chelsea in 1997.

Acting Head of Leeds City Council’s Parks and Countryside Service Sean Flesher said:

“This is turning into an amazing week for the team and the city of Leeds as a whole. As soon as we heard we had won gold we had a sneaking suspicion we were the first council to do it here with a large show garden, and we are really grateful to the RHS for taking the time to check for us as it really means a lot for us to be the first.

“The whole project came together fantastically well, with our staff combining superbly with the engineering talents of our sponsor HESCO Bastion to create a garden which is really special and is proving hugely popular. The whole week so far has been absolutely brilliant.”

The HESCO Garden 2010 is the largest and most ambitious garden design entered by Leeds at Chelsea, modelled on a section of the Leeds-Liverpool Canal complete with a canal and full-sized lock gates as the centrepiece which the organisers the RHS have also confirmed is the first time such a water feature has ever appeared at Chelsea.

The theme of garden is to celebrate the green linkages which connect the city centre to the countryside in and around Leeds, as well as the importance of protecting the local environment and raising awareness of the proven health benefits green spaces provide.

The symbolic use of the canal and lock gates is a reflection of the industrial past of the city, when the Leeds-Liverpool waterway was used as a key transport route. The lock gates are also flanked by three distinct sections – woodland, wetland and a floral meadow – which can all be found in green spaces in Leeds.

Maintaining the Yorkshire flavour the garden has been produced using locally-sourced materials from the region, with all the plants and flowers being grown in Leeds and HESCO products providing the structural framework for the garden.

The HESCO Garden 2010 is on display all week in the elite show garden category alongside gardens designed by some of the biggest names in the horticulture industry.

The event, held annually in the grounds of the Royal Hospital in London, attracts over 150,000 visitors from all over the globe as well as receiving extensive coverage from the world’s media.

On Monday’s press day, The HESCO Garden 2010 was visited by a host of celebrities including Dame Helen Mirren, Piers Morgan, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, Nick Knowles, Jayne Torvill, Christopher Biggins, Lesley Joseph, Linda Barker, Sarah Greene, Moira Stewart and Jennie Bond.

In addition to raising the profile of the city, entering a show garden at Chelsea also allows the council’s Parks and Countryside staff to pit their wits against the finest garden designers in the world, learning new skills and techniques which are then used every day to improve green spaces all over Leeds.

Sponsors and project partners HESCO Bastion, a Leeds-based company who are world-leading manufacturers of products used in civil engineering, said: ”HESCO would like to congratulate the Leeds City Council team for their historic achievement with The HESCO Garden 2010.   It has been a pleasure to work with the team to provide the engineering framework for a garden which spectacularly marries engineering and landscape design.

“Leeds has a long-held reputation for engineering excellence dating back to the industrial revolution; this year’s garden focuses on these engineering developments of the past, and the present, all of which contribute to the vibrancy of Leeds. HESCO is proud that our products carry on Leeds’ engineering tradition for innovation and design. Well done Leeds!”

Young people in Leeds have also played their part in The HESCO Garden 2010, as pupils from local primary schools have taken part in a special education project and competition to help them learn about the value and importance of protecting green spaces.

But now we have a gold medal it would be the cherry on top to win the coveted People’s Choice Award for the best garden at Chelsea this year. If you love The HESCO Garden 2010 as much as we do, please vote for us at http://apps.rhs.org.uk/peopleschoice/ and help make our historic week even more amazing. Thanks for your support,

Hello everyone,

The celebrations are just about to get into full swing following a day which only be summed up in one word: Brilliant. At our eighth attempt, and with our first full-size show garden, Leeds has finally cracked it and won its first-ever gold medal at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show – the biggest gardening event in the world. To understand the emotions the whole team working on The HESCO Garden 2010 I need to take you back to first thing this morning and go from there.

After being stuck in traffic on the way to the show, we arrived a few minutes’ after the advance team who we expected would be ringing us to tell us the garden result which is normally waiting for you when you arrive.

No call came though and so when we walked through the entrance at about 7:40am and heard a huge cheer from the Australian garden we were wondering if perhaps we had got it wrong and had missed the boat. Things got weird when we arrived on the garden to find out no-one had a clue what result we had achieved – nothing waiting for us. Then we got a call from BBC presenter Nicki Chapman who said the tv crew were coming over live in a couple of minutes and to be ready to hear the result. At this point we all looked at each other in excitement but still weren’t really sure what was about to happen.

I hung back in the background as Nicki seemed to take an age in delivering the result. It was worth the wait. As soon as Nicki said “gold” Martin and Paul from our team who accepted the award just looked stunned, and both quickly had tears in their eyes. An absolutely priceless moment. I started celebrating in the background and to my horror the BBC cameraman swung the camera straight at me! Thankfully I don’t think they will use that bit of footage.

Within minutes the phone calls began. Us telling the team (some of who were only just up), congratulations messages coming in from all over and calls from the Leeds media wanting instant reactions.

So that was how the day went – lots of media interviews, phone calls, text messages and celebratory pictures on the garden.

The RHS members also flocked to the garden all day long. Including an unexpected visit from England rugby union legend Brian Moore, who was fascinated by the canal and lock gates (like thousands of others!).

The general public come in tomorrow, and we are preparing ourselves to be utterly swamped, even moreso now we have a gold medal garden. We still can’t quite believe it – a gold medal garden. Wow!

A job well done and this award is so well deserved for the whole team who have worked so hard on it and especially for Paul and Martin, who have worked so hard on it I dread to think how many hours they have spent making sure it is perfect.

Well done guys, and to the whole. A simply brilliant result.

Roger.