The Garden Show at Stansted Park is celebrating its 20th birthday. Twenty years ago Jane Sterck and Lizzie Dymock were asked to set up a garden show at Stansted Park in Hampshire to create a forum for start-up businesses and showcase the work of talented groups like The Princes Trust.
Gardening enthusiasts were learning that you don’t have to be experts to make your garden look great and were keen to access good design, plants and garden accessories. There was a gap in the market and Jane and Lizzie were confident that it would be a good opportunity for local gardeners, designers and artists to exhibit; particularly those who couldn’t afford the larger, more commercial shows.
The first show consisted of about 30 enthusiastic stands and an art exhibition with gardening celebrities Anthony Paul, Penelope Hobhouse, John Brookes and Paula Pryke to help kick off in style. Since then many gardeners and designers have been generous with their time and given great gardening talks and demonstrations.
Now there are over 300 exhibitors including about 20 charities who have made thousands of pounds over the years. Jane’s two daughters Emily and Lucy are now an important part of the team and the Show is still supported by friends who take the weekend off and morph into staff. Visitors enjoy the friendly atmosphere and agree that it is a brilliant opportunity to buy beautiful plants and chat to specialist plantsmen and designers who really know what they are talking about.
They appreciate the refreshingly different range of gardening accessories and gifts and find it difficult to tear themselves away from the Food Marquee with its mouth-watering artisan country foods and cookery demonstrations. New this year is a blacksmith art exhibition complementing the Art and Design Marquee with its fabulous crafts and design. By popular demand the Plant Doctors return to dispense their practical advice with workshops on creating wild flower meadows and planting trees.
Lots of interactive fun for both adults and children who as well as engaging with new gardening skills can learn to juggle, go zorbing, get lost in the maze, ride the model railway or play in the fairground.
Stansted’s lovely parklands are there for all to enjoy and it is a good opportunity to explore the House, Chapel and arboretum and watch the Huxley Birds of Prey soar through the skies. It is a great day out for all the family.