The Wonky Garden, the award-winning community garden in Widnes, is to receive more than 2,000 plants from this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show, helping to complete its final phase of development and further expand its impact on the local community.
The plants from the Project Giving Back Garden will be transported directly from RHS Chelsea in May to The Wonky Garden, a thriving volunteer-led green space based at Ditton Community Centre.
Project Giving Back (PGB) was set up to fund gardens for charities at RHS Chelsea that all go on to be permanently homed around the UK. For the first time this year PGB has its own feature garden (drawing above), created by landscape designer James Basson, marking the project’s final year and celebrating its impact in amplifying the work of charitable causes across the UK.
Over the past five years, PGB has funded 64 gardens – investing more than £23 million – helping bring charitable causes to the heart of RHS Chelsea by offering them a platform to raise awareness and connect with new audiences. PGB has not only championed the power of gardens, but also the communities and individuals who use and benefit from them. Every garden supported by PGB is relocated to a permanent home after the show, ensuring a meaningful and lasting legacy for communities like those that use The Wonky Garden.
The Wonky Garden was founded in 2018 by Angela Hayler following her own experience of gardening helping her recovery from cancer. It began as a modest idea among a group of like-minded volunteers. Today, it spans around an acre and includes an orchard, flower garden, children’s garden, allotment and friendship hub. It has become a powerful example of how gardens can bring communities together, support wellbeing and create lasting social impact — the same ethos that has always been at the heart of Project Giving Back.
Angela says: “The Wonky Garden has grown into something truly special – a place where friendships grow, knowledge is shared and people come together and have fun. Receiving this generous donation of plants from the Project Giving Back Garden is a fantastic opportunity to complete our garden and continue supporting many people from different parts of our wider community. The range of plants will be a wonderful addition to the space, bringing a different style of planting, which we look forward to sharing with our visitors.”
The Project Giving Back Garden itself is inspired by the landscape of Provence in the South of France, where its designer James Basson lives and works. It recreates the striking red sandstone cliffs near Roussillon, once mined for their rich ochre pigments, set among pine trees and planted with a mix of Mediterranean plants such as thyme, lavender and cistus. These climate-resilient plants are suited to drier summers and offer a glimpse of how UK gardens could look in the future.
The plants donated by Project Giving Back, which have been grown by leading nursery Kelways, will be used to transform a 13m by 8m area of scrubland into a new ornamental gravel garden beside the Men’s Shed shelter. This will complete the final part of the Wonky Garden, which has gone from strength to strength over the past eight years.
Hattie Ghaui, CEO of Project Giving Back, commented: “The Wonky Garden is a brilliant example of how a garden can bring a community together, which is a common thread that has run through all of the gardens that Project Giving Back has supported. We are thrilled that the plants from the Project Giving Back Garden will live on here in this fabulous setting where they will continue to grow and be enjoyed.”
Run entirely by volunteers aged between 8 and 91, the Wonky Garden supports a wide network of individuals and groups across the Borough of Halton. Its work includes promoting physical and mental wellbeing, delivering outdoor learning for schools and colleges, and providing spaces for community groups ranging from young carers and Brownies to dementia and cancer patients and bereaved families. Around 5,900 people have benefitted from its work, with many more enjoying the garden throughout the year including via open days to raise money for the National Garden Scheme. The garden grows food for the Widnes Foodbank, donating 80% of its produce to this cause, as well as masses of cut flowers to bring a smile to those in need of cheer. They also run a growing network, supporting like minded community groups with knowledge sharing and growing plants for them, and a hedgehog rescue network.
In recognition of its exceptional community impact, The Wonky Garden was awarded the King’s Award for Voluntary Service in 2025 — the highest honour for volunteer groups in the UK. Angela and fellow Trustee, Millie are representing the team at Buckingham Palace this summer to receive the award and the wider team will celebrate the award with a garden party in July.
Find out more and follow the story of The Project Giving Back Garden at https://www.givingback.org.uk/news
Follow the Wonky Garden on Instagram and Facebook
About Project Giving Back
Project Giving Back (PGB) is a unique grant-making charity that provides funding for gardens for good causes at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. PGB was launched in May 2021 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and its devastating effects on UK charitable fundraising – effects that have since been exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis. PGB will fund 11 gardens at RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 2026, in addition to the Project Giving Back Garden – and a total of 63 gardens inspired by a range of good causes at the show from 2022 to 2026.