Hertfordshire charity features in gold medal-winning Chelsea Show Garden

The freshly waxed and polished wooden handled hoes, spades, forks, hand tools and shears have been reconditioned by SRT employee, Lewis Sinfield, along with a team of trainees and volunteers at SRT’s Northchurch site.

Quote from Sunnyside’s Tool Restoration Project Leader and Project Worker, Lewis Sinfield:

‘I am proud to have helped Sunnyside get to the Chelsea Flower Show. It’s great to show people what our trainees can achieve when given the chance.

Sunnyside enables people to discover the skills and strengths they didn’t know they had. People change completely when they are working with the tools. It’s very moving to see.’

Quote from designer, Tom Stuart-Smith:

‘I was thrilled to include all the beautiful tools from Sunnyside in the garden. Today [Thursday] Monty Don visited the shed and was especially admiring of Lewis’s handywork.’

Designed by eight-time Chelsea gold medal-winner, Tom Stuart-Smith, The NGS Garden is funded by Project Giving Back and will be relocated to form part of the new garden at Maggie’s at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge.

The garden, in which the tools feature, is designed to give a sense of calm and connection to nature. It incorporates a woodland theme and includes gently drifting underplanting laid out through an open hazel coppice.

Lewis Sinfield continues:

‘I believe that this tool project can get to new heights to earn money for the Trust and to provide supported employment opportunities and to give the trainees new skills.’

Lewis’s aim is to grow the Sunnyside tool project. He is ready to scale up the operation, rescuing more old garden tools that were destined for the tip and restoring them, whilst teaching trainees new skills and generating additional income.