Gaysha Ltd, along with Longrake Spar and Dural, are helping a charity promote its vital health awareness work at RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show this summer. Landscape architect Emma Bannister CMLI is working with the charity National Association of Premenstrual Syndrome (NAPS) to build a show garden to raise awareness of the very common women’s health condition, Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS or PMT) – and Gaysha Ltd are supplying the resin bound paving that features prominently in the design and will allow all visitors to walk around the garden.
It is estimated as many as 30% of women can experience moderate to severe PMS, with 5-8% suffering severe symptoms (around 800,000 in the UK). Common symptoms include mood swings, depression, tiredness, anxiety, irritability, sleep disorder and food cravings. The condition can have a devastating impact on countless women and their families.
The show garden, called ‘PMS: Outside Inside for NAPS’, has been designed to show the mood contrasts experienced by a PMS sufferer. At first glance the garden appears as a curving path through a natural area of hazel woodland with native ferns and common wildflowers. The inside of the garden is initially screened from view by a curving willow screen. As visitors walk around the cycle they get glimpses of the inside until they get to the end of the cycle and a circular window reveals the hidden inside – a contorted hazel. The inside willow weave pattern shows the fluctuations of the four different hormones that are responsible for ovulation and thus PMS.
Emma Bannister, co-designer of the garden said: “ I knew about Gaysha’s excellent work for the new Woodland Trust Headquarters in Grantham – a woodland scheme which was one of the inspirations for the design, so I approached them to help me out with my Show garden. I needed high quality surfacing that would cope with the impact of thousands of visitors and summer thunderstorms and was also a smooth surface for wheelchairs and buggies. “
The garden has been co-designed by Ben Donadel of EMJ Architects and is being supported by Holistic Insurance Services and Monro Consulting.
The stone for the surfacing has been generously supplied by Long Rake Spar and the steel metal edging by Dural UK , while Gaysha Ltd are installing the surfacing at the show. For more information on Clearmac® resin bound paving please visit the product page here: Clearmac® resin bound paving
