Carpentry students create bug hotel for RHS cancer awareness garden

For the second year running, Leeds College of Building students are using their skills to help create an RHS show garden.

Students on the Level 1 Diploma in Carpentry and Joinery created two 1.5m triangular hotels out of wood. The structures will appear at the main entrance of a garden that will be exposed to RHS Tatton Flower Show 2024 (July 17 – 21, 2024).

Led by garden designer Carolyn Hardern and landscape construction manager Jon Jarvis, the project will raise awareness of melanoma skin cancer in the construction industry. The “1804 Garden” is named after the date when melanoma was first mentioned in the medical world.

Research shows that working outdoors in the sun leads to around five cases of melanoma and one death a week in the UK. Last year, construction workers accounted for 44% of occupational skin cancer diagnoses and 42% of occupational skin cancer deaths each year – despite construction workers making up only 8% of the workforce. Carolyn said:

“Skin cancer is a critical but often overlooked safety challenge in the construction industry when so many professionals work outdoors. We look forward to showcasing this thought-provoking garden and hope to raise awareness of this vital issue.

“We hope to build on the success of our Tatton entry last year with an even bigger and better plot. This year is particularly special as a year of anniversaries: RHS 200 years ago, Tatton Show 25 years, Southport 100 years and it will be 20 years since I did my first show garden at Tatton!”

Just over 300 m², the garden will be the largest at this year’s Tatton Flower Show and will promote the charities Band of Builders and Melanoma UK. The garden is shaped like an equilateral triangle, inspired by the yellow and black radiation symbol often found in hospital cancer centers.

At the heart of the garden, a circular water feature incorporates a dramatic open sphere of detached and levitating steel rings, symbolizing the eradication of cancer cells and the healing process. Three large steel planters are placed between the seats with a selection of elegant parasol trees providing partial shade from the sun’s UV rays.

Students at Leeds College of Construction have recycled timber waste from previous projects to make bug hotels. The wood was glued and planed to the required dimensions and drilled, screwed, glued and doweled. They finished the hotels by adding a wooden beetle shape and each will be filled with natural materials collected by pupils from Wrenbury County and Bickerton Primary Schools in Cheshire.

Rob Smith, Head of Partnerships and Skills at Leeds College of Building, said:

“Carolyn and Jon first approached the college given our status as the only specialist general education construction college in the UK. We were happy to lend a hand last year with the theme of mental health in construction in mind and are delighted to be involved again in 2024.

“Skin cancer disproportionately affects our industry given the nature of our work outdoors. Shockingly, construction workers diagnosed with melanoma have the highest number of deaths than any other profession. We hope that our students’ contribution to the project will help raise awareness of sun safety and skin cancer prevention.”

This is the second year that Leeds College of Building has teamed up with Carolyn and Jon. In 2023, their ‘Constructing Minds’ garden won the prestigious Best in Show award and an RHS Silver Medal. Inspired by the theme of wellbeing and mental health, the garden included over 700 wooden hearts, spray painted in the color of the hats, by Leeds College Painting and Decorating Apprentices. Each represented a life taken by suicide in the construction sector in just one year.

The 1804 garden will continue to feature on a smaller scale at the Southport Flower Show in August before being donated to a worthy, permanent local home. The project will cost around £30,000 and donations for the construction and relocation of the garden are now being sought through the project. Just giving page.

To learn more, visit Garden 1804 Instagram page or see Leeds College of Construction website for information on carpentry and joinery courses.

This post is based on a press release issued on behalf of Leeds College of Construction

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