Winner of the Student Garden Design Competition- Southport Flower Show

Momo and I started talking about doing this competition when I took over her room in Oxford...It was not easy to prepare all documents as Momo now lives in Canada so we had to overcome the time difference. But it all worked out fine! We won and are very happy.

The topic of this years competition was COAST. Our idea was to "enlarge" the 6x6m garden by shallowed water ponds, a pergola with hammock above pebble planting and a deck walk leading from a chrome door- that reflects water and sky- to the hammock.

I am very excited to see it all finished ;-) and I am very glad to have my colleagues from school who help with ideas and searching material.

The Southport Flower Show is actually the UK's largest and friendliest, independent flower show on 34 acres with around 80.000 visitors over 4 days. It starts on august 19th, hope you all come and visit! :-)))
More information you can get on www.southportflowershow.co.uk

Here is the press release from Southport Flower Show (Chris Corfield):

STUDENT GARDEN WINNERS ANNOUNCED

A TOUCH of international class will be gracing Southport Flower Show this year.The winners of this year’s Southport Flower Show Student Garden design competition have been announced, with this year’s top entry showcasing the best in continental cool.

A team from the Oxford College of Garden Design (OCGD), consisting of Momo Pino, 32, from Croatia and Alexandra Lehne, 34, from Germany, won the competition with their design based on the show’s theme of Coast. The team of judges congratulated them on the high caliber of their entry, and praised the winners for their use of both conceptual and sculptural elements in their design.

The competition challenges design students to create an exciting and unique garden with a budget of £5,000. The winning design is then brought to life and displayed in front of over 75,000 people at the Southport Flower Show, which runs from August 19 – 22.

For one half of the winning team, it was a chance to improve on last year’s second place finish. Momo, who was highly commended for her 2009 entry, said she was happy to go one step further this year: “I made a few mistakes with my entry in 2009. It was unrealistic in terms of budget, so I made sure that this year our entry was within budget without losing any of the flair that made our design stand out.”
Momo, currently living and working in Canada after finishing her course, will be flying over to the UK to oversee the building work on the garden. She said: “I was sceptical about the design at first; it took some convincing from Alex. I wasn’t sure it was ‘showy’ enough for a show garden, but Alex had the vision and it has paid off for us. I can’t wait to see it finished and on display.”

The pair, who will also receive £1,000 in prize money, embraced modern technology to work together on the designs, often working on the same project despite being thousands of miles apart.
Alexandra said: “I am so happy we won; it will be so exciting to see the final design built and displayed among all the other wonderful things on offer over the weekend of the show. "
“You can have brilliant ideas but they don’t always work in real life, so this competition gives us a chance to show people that we can not only manage the whole process, but also that by being positive you can make great things happen. It will also give us the opportunity to start our careers as garden designers with an award-winning first item in our portfolio!”

Duncan Heather, from OCGD, said: “Competitions such as this one are invaluable to designers like Alex and Momo."
"It’s a fantastic opportunity for them to demonstrate what they’ve learnt and also gain the credibility needed to forge a successful career in garden design.”
Building work will start on the winning design in the last week of July, and will be ready in time for the show’s grand opening on August 19.

So far we got press featured here:
Horticulture Week
Garden Design Guru
Responsesource