Warm glow…

Back at work now after two hugely affirming days working on the Key Garden, I’m still basking in a warm glow from having been privileged enough to be involved with this inspirational project, even at a very late stage. Although I’d chatted with many of the Eden team involved with this project many times over [...]

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Gardener’s World…John Brown talks to Alan Titchmarsh

My name is John Brown and I am a service user at House of St Barnabus in Soho. I have been involved there for about 2 years now. Pippa Bagnall who is in charge of the House of St Barnabus has been very good to me. I had nothing and now I have my own [...]

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A time and a place for change poem

The forest of reclaimed timbers in the Key Garden is inscribed with the words of the poet Dean Stalham – a stream-of-consciousness description of his time in and out of prison, on and off the streets. “The poem I have written for The Key is my personal life’s journey,” says Dean. “Every man and woman’s [...]

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Bloomin’ marvellous…

Day 2 for RHS members and they seem to love the natural look of our garden. Three deep at times and there were loads of positive comments and lots of interest in the story behind its creation and its sustainability. The Welcome Project from Ilford – Una and Ishmael – were first up yesterday followed [...]

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Shaking hands with the Queen

I’m on “cloud 9”. I was thrilled to be able to shake hands with the Queen, Duke of Edinburgh, Princess Anne, Duke & Duchess of Kent and David Bellamy. Every one of them spent time looking at the plot. It was a shame Prince Charles was called off to one of the other plots. It [...]

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All that glitters…

The Key Garden won silver today at the Chelsea Flower Show! Several weeks ago, when I was still knee deep in co-ordinating who was coming to the show on which days and I hadn’t really comprehended the enormous task facing Paul Stone and all those who were about to help him make The Key a [...]

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Today is the day – official garden opening

After months of hard work seeing the garden develop from tiny seedlings into the finished result today, we were just gobsmacked to see the garden in all its glory today – and the response to the garden from the media has been staggering. We feel honoured to have been on site today, to officially open [...]

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Giving a sense of hope

Rob, the artist on the garden: “For me working with everyone on this project has been an exciting journey. “Like the garden it’s had its rough patches full of stumbling blocks as well as moments of calm and shelter. But most satisfying of all has been the sense of community I have felt in this [...]

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We’re in the press – the BBC, Telegraph and others

The Chelsea Flower Show is well under way and our Key garden is receiving plenty of attention in the media. Last night’s BBC preview show, hosted by Alan Titchmarsh, featured the garden. Alan said of The Key: “It seems fairly calm already on the Key Garden. This has been designed by Paul Stone of the [...]

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Transformed into a proper garden by hard work

Hello, Sid here. I’m one of the volunteers working on the garden. I’ve been here virtually from the start to now. It was hard to see what the garden was going to look like in the beginning – it just looked like a barren bit of wasteland, a bit of beaten up grass. Now it [...]

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