New Directions Southport show garden puts spotlight on magical memories.
A garden created by Sefton residents who have support needs due to disability, age or mental health conditions is set to be one of the most innovative entries at Southport Flower Show.
Clients from services across the borough run by leading adult social care provider, New Directions, have been busy putting the finishing touches to their Magical Memories exhibit, which takes its cue from the show’s Curious Garden theme this year.
The New Directions garden is based in part on Edward Lear’s famous nonsense poem, The Owl and the Pussycat, and will feature a ‘bong-tree’ and a water feature suitable for a miniature version of the fabled ‘pea green boat’.
However, the exhibit also aims to raise awareness of dementia, a condition affecting many clients supported by New Directions.
As a result, other elements of the garden also put the spotlight on the golden memories of childhood by including items such as a sandpit, a blackboard and a hopscotch court.
This is the third year that New Directions has produced a garden for the Flower Show, and the organisation is hoping that this year’s entry will follow in the medal-winning ways of The Garden of the Blessed in 2015 and The Lost City of Atlantis last summer.
Magical Memories has been created by clients at the organisation’s New Leaf garden centre and North Hub in Southport, and the New Creations art, craft, joinery and textiles workshops in Netherton.
New Directions Business Development Manager, Dave Hughes, commented: “It’s great to see our services throughout Sefton coming together to work on this exciting project, which has quickly become one of the highlights of our annual events calendar.
“Our service users get a huge amount of satisfaction and pride from seeing their work on display, and I am sure Magical Memories will attract a lot of interest from the thousands of visitors who attend this prestigious event.”
New Directions was established in Sefton in 2007 as the first local authority social care trading company in the country.
Ten years on, the organisation remains at the forefront of the local care sector, with a team of more than 300 staff caring for older Sefton residents, or people with disabilities or mental health support needs.
For more information about the services offered by New Directions, or to find out about joining the team, ring 0151 934 3726 or visit www.ndirections.co.uk.
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