Canal & River Trust: Message in a Bottle

In more detail

• A 'sea' of swaying grass Stipa tenuissima and blue flax (which can make linseed oil as a plastic liner alternative) represents water and movement, as you'd experience in a canal
• The Corten steel boundary wall represents marine piling, as seen on locks or motorway embankments. The varying heights of its outline echo an urban skyline

About the garden

This conceptual garden represents a discarded bottle floating towards the shore. But far from being a depressing piece of pollution, it has a bright and appealing garden growing inside it. Its message is simple – that we can all take action to help prevent plastic pollution – whether within our own gardens, or in the vital urban green spaces in our towns and cities, and around our canals and rivers.

Created from iron, the bottle contains a variety of plants selected for their vibrant colours and beauty to represent the positive message that we can all do something to help. Surrounding the bottle is a sea of flax plants – chosen for their graceful blue flowers and swaying seed heads, but also because they represent the huge number of plant species that are used to make natural alternatives to plastic.