Award winning show garden raises funds for RNLI

We are thrilled to announce that Cormac’s RNLI show garden at this year’s Royal Cornwall Show raised nearly £500 for the Charity, as well as being awarded a prestigious Gold medal.

The garden was created to celebrate the RNLI’s 200^th anniversary and was inspired by the work that their beach lifeguards do along the Cornish coast. Designed by Jacqui Owen and Howard Burns from the Cormac Landscape team-west, the show garden incorporated a variety of elements that might be experienced during a walk along the South West Coast Path, with a beachscape featuring grasses and wildlife friendly plants growing amongst rocks and pebbles; a raised coastal garden made up of an array of salt tolerant horticultural gems and an RNLI Lifeguard rescue RIB, launching into the spray of incoming waves, formed using frothy blue and white flowers mixed with silver foliage.

All the materials used in the garden were either donated, recycled or borrowed, including 16 tonnes of sand from the Padstow Sea Sand Company; four tonnes of wood mulch from Cormac’s Arborist west team; rocks, stones, pebbles, and two van loads of plants from Trevenna Cross Nurseries and another two van loads of plants from Hayle Plants.

Beautiful benches and tables were made by Henry Upton and Nathan Holliday from the Cormac Public Rights of Way west team using wood donated by EAA (Eco Active Arborists) from a tree that had been felled in Falmouth five years ago, which they had milled and dried. These were raffled at the Show, raising funds for the RNLI, and were won by a delighted Mark from Mawnan Smith.

Creating the show garden was a huge team effort with so many people from Cormac coming together to support Jacqui and Howard in bringing their award-winning design to life, including Dave Matthews, Henry Upton, Nathan Holliday and Tom Beech from the Public Rights of Way west team, Gary Bailey and Nick Watson from the Arborist west team, Matt Stannard from the Falmouth Garden team, Terea Buzza and Shane Mufford from Wheal Eliza nursery, Sue Nicholls, Senior Beach Ranger and Sam Robotham, Assistant Beach Ranger from the Environment Countryside team, as well as the amazing community volunteers who come from all over Cornwall to help with the hard work.

The feedback from the RNLI, the judges and the public was overwhelming. Dave Nichol, RNLI Fundraising & Partnership Lead, South West region said,  “We are indebted to Cormac and their teams for the support they gave the RNLI during this year's Royal Cornwall Show – the show garden that was designed and built by the team highlighted the lifesaving and educational work of the charity and gave a real sense of the coastal heritage of our county. For the garden to be awarded a Gold Medal at the show was an amazing result and highlighted the skills of the Cormac team and was a fitting way of marking the RNLI’s 200^thanniversary. We must also mention the Padstow Sand Company, Trevena Cross Nurseries, Hayle Plants and Eco Active Arborists who supported this project.”