LANTRA SKILLS AMBASSADOR THRIVES AT CHELSEA

Skills are in the spotlight this week as the ‘horticultural Olympics’ are in full bloom. The prestigious Chelsea Flower Show, which has been taking place for almost a century, recognises horticulture’s greatest talents including this year, Lantra Skills Ambassador Susan Stuart, who helped horticultural therapy charity Thrive win gold and best urban garden.The winning entry of the urban garden category, called by Thrive ‘The Unexpected Gardener,’ is aimed at the mature gardener who is reluctant to compromise on style or design and yet has less time and energy for gardening.A small national charity that operates in the field of disability and gardening, Thrive provides information and specialist services, training and structured horticultural programmes which help thousands of disabled people.Lantra’s London Partnership Manager, Jonathan Pettit, said: “It’s fantastic to see Susan along with Thrive win such a prestigious award. The garden shows how age or disability need not mean an end to gardening.”UK Skills, the not-for-profit organisation that champions skills and learning for work through competitions and awards, can also boast a Chelsea silver medal for its garden ‘Growing World Class Talent: celebrating the workforce of tomorrow.’ The garden promotes excellence in vocational education and training whilst illustrating how greater investment in skills and development will help lift UK industry out of recession.

"Plus it doesn't matter if we all know plants are better value. I'd make the point of this to the customer but if they want trough grown at the extra cost that's their choice I'd just do it"

"I've done 5ft Thorne troughs. Very easy to plant just got a mini digger dug the trench then drop them in couldn't be easier however £250 per m does seem expensive. "

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