Southend’s Playful Garden bids for national honours!

The garden, appealing to children and adults, features an upside-down garden, an underground garden where children can crawl through a Perspex tunnel for a worms-eye view of the colourful roots of carrots and beetroots growing, and bamboozling bamboo to hide in.

A spiral path, through clumps of aromatic herbs leads to the centrepiece - a specially-designed play feature. This will feature in one Southend play spaces following the Hampton Court show.

This Playful Garden is being created by Southend-on-Sea Borough Council's expert Parks Technical Team, and is supported by the Department for Children Schools and Families, (DCSF) and the playground equipment company, Hags Play Ltd

The Council's Corporate Director for Adult and Community Services, Simon Leftley says: "We feel that our extra special garden will be inspiring, invigorating, and hugely enjoyable.

"It will show how plants can add to the play experience - especially when they are grown upside down! We hope it will prove just as much fun for adults as well as children, encouraging interaction through play.

"We are very grateful indeed to Hags Play Ltd and the DCSF who have helped make this garden possible. "Southend-on-Sea Borough Council was awarded Playbuilder Status to enable us to refurbish 20 of our play spaces in the borough.

"We are currently part way through this improvement programme, and those we have upgraded so far are proving highly popular and are very well used. The Playful Garden reflects the ongoing success of this work."

Peter Faulkner, Area Sales Manager from Hags says: "HAGS Play Ltd is pleased to be partnered with Southend-on-Sea Borough Council which is forward thinking and understands childrens' need for exciting and challenging areas in which to play, develop and learn.

"The Council also recognises the inspiration and motivation for communities to take ownership, improve and care for their outdoor recreational spaces.  HAGS Play Ltd. considers the inspirational design of the PLAYFUL GARDEN, exhibited at Hampton Court Flower Show, to reflect the skill, passion and understanding of the Council to show how important outdoor space is, to everyone of all ages." Hags Play Ltd. 

The Royal Horticultural Society's Hampton Court Palace Flower Show is open to the public from Tuesday 6th July until Sunday 11th July. For more details contact: http://www.rhs.org.uk/Shows-Events/Hampton-Court-Palace-Flower-Show/2010 or call 0844 338 7524.