This week for the first time ever my husband and I went to the Chelsea Flower Show . The primary reason of this, other than it was on my bucket list, was to get inspiration for planning our tiny courtyard garden (somehow it seems much more difficult to plan a small space than a large on as there is no room for mistakes). Naturally I took my camera as well.

The challenges of taking photos at Chelsea are immense. First there are the crowds which mean that you are lucky to get close enough to any of the exhibits to see them never mind photograph them. Then there is the fact that you can't spend half the day fiddling with your camera settings as you will (a) annoy those people jostling for position to view the gardens and (b) annoy your companion who is, after all, here to look at the gardens himself. If you then throw into the mix difficult lighting conditions around some of my favourite exhibits ,it seems a wonder that I took any pictures worth sharing at all! But here goes.

I'm going to start off by sharing one of my favourite gardens in the Fresh gardens category which represents the cutting edge of small concept gardens

This is the World Vision Garden inspired both by the beauty of the rice fields of Cambodia, and the fact that many children are existing on 2 bowls of rice a day. The golden rods represent the rice and the dark water the fear of hunger.

Other dangers lurk beneath the waters for those who work in the paddy fields and these are represented by bowls of cacti

Hope blooms in the garden too, represented by the Irises and other delicate flowers that are able to thrive, as Cambodia's children must.

This Garden appeals to me on multiple levels. I love the colour and the visual impact, but I also travelled to Cambodia a couple of years ago and visited Honour Village, a children's centre founded by a friend of mine. This foundation is doing much good work to help children and families in Cambodia.

As part of our recent trip to Vietnam and Cambodia we were thrilled to be able to visit Honour Village, a childrens village founded by Sue Wiggans a retired school teacher from the Isle of Wight. More info about the village here

The first challenge was to get to the village from Siem Reap, where we were staying in order to visit the magnificent Angkor Wat temple complex. Sue had sent us detailed instructions which we proved to be incapable of conveying either to the hotel receptionist or the tuk tuk driver. The solution was to ring Sue who asked one of her Cambodian staff members to instruct the driver on our behalf. Then we were off, bouncing along the hot and dusty road sometimes, but not always, missing the inevitable potholes! After about half an hour and a couple of wrong turnings we arrived, hot, dusty and pleased to be there.

Our first impression of Honour Village was of happy smiling children - one that has stayed with us!

After a Welcome from Sue we were taken on a tour of the village. There are over 50 resident children ranging in age from under fives to older teenagers. These are children who have lost their parents or whose families are unable to care for them at present.

In addition to the resident children, more than 300 children come for lessons from the surrounding villages to supplement the education provided by the Cambodian state. It is normal in Cambodia for parents to pay for additional lessons for their children to ensure they pass their grades which with class sizes up to 60 can be a challenge for some. Many parents cannot, of course, afford this and the lessons available at Honour Village help to fill this gap.

Sue told us that they were hoping to get a government sponsored teacher to work at the village and that this would make a significant difference to the status of Honour Village. In the meantime as we walked round we saw several classes in action teaching Khmer and English. Some children were using the small library and others were playing in the garden. More classes would begin at 2 including Sue's kindergarten class.

There was also evidence of the challenge of keeping house for 50 plus, I was glad the washing wasn't my responsibility - as it is there is a line for each of the houses and the housemothers are responsible for the task.

As we were leaving Sue and the Honour Village manager began to look at the children's grade cards from the local school - the idea that education can provide a way out of poverty is a central tenet of the philosophy of Honour Village and the children are given all the help and encouragement possible both in terms of their work at the local school and their lessons at Honour Village.

Honour village is doing great work helping children and families in Siem Riep if you would like to support them in this work you can make a donation here.

A lotus flower is the logo for Honour village together with the words

TRUTH - TRANSPARENCY - INTEGRITY

a visit to Honour Village allows you to see these values in action

Postcard from Chelsea - One

A Visit to the Village