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'Couch Potato' Wins Medal at Hampton Court

5 July 2006

A quirky, original and eco-friendly garden 'Converting the Couch Potato', designed and constructed by Horticulture students from City College Brighton and Hove, has won a Silver Medal at Hampton Court Flower Show. Incorporating a seating area and a discarded TV set into the design, the garden is about extending the limitations of modern lifestyle and converting the contents of a couch potato's life into a beneficial reality. 'Converting the Couch Potato' rediscovers the potato behind the chip and the tomato in the ketchup, proving that recycling and reclaiming materials can be visually dynamic. All hard-landscaping materials were either recycled or sourced from sustainable local supplies. The garden was sponsored by 4X Currency Corporation, which has just launched the world's first live online foreign exchange system aimed at companies and individuals.

Blue Peter gardener Chris Collins says:

Blue Peter gardener Chris Collins with winning designers Rachael Woodgate (l) and Cre

Blue Peter gardener Chris Collins with winning designers Rachael Woodgate (l) and Cre

'In my view, this was the best small garden in the show. When you think that the students grew most of the plants from seed and used recycled materials, this will inspire people to get up and get gardening.'

Cressida Knapp, who designed the garden with fellow student Rachael Woodgate, says:

"This is my first attempt at designing a garden so it's been a frenzy of learning over the last few months. When I see the amazing quality of the other medal-winning gardens, it's great to know that our garden is considered to be of an equal calibre. It feels wonderful to win Silver at such a prestigious event."

Horticulture lecturer Jim Miller says:

'This is a very innovative garden and it's a credit to all the students. The fact that so many other gardens at the show are by professional designers with big budgets makes their achievement all the more impressive.'

By creating a mini utopia of bold colours, interesting food crops, and rare plants, largely all from a single plant family, the garden's aim is to highlight the vast diversity of nature, spark curiosity to learn more about plants and inspire people from all walks of life and all ages to get greener.

The garden features unusual, edible and decorative plants of the potato (Solanaceae) family, the planting includes blue fleshed and red fleshed potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, Salpiglossis, Nicotiana, Schizanthus, Brugmansia and the fabulous Solanum quitoense, which has never appeared at Hampton Court before.

For further information, please call Brian Bell, Marketing Communications Officer, on 01273 667788 Ext. 488 or email bb1@ccb.ac.uk

About City College Brighton and Hove: Founded over 100 years ago, City College Brighton and Hove has become an international centre of excellence. Every year over 2,000 full-time and 13,000 part time students as well as many international and European students choose City College as their education provider. Offering over 650 courses from basic level to pre-University level, City College is working with its partners to develop the workforce of the future.