Celebrating the 30th Bupa Great North Run, our RHS Chelsea Flower Show display captured the spectacle of the world's largest half-marathon and was awarded a silver medal by the RHS judges.

Focusing on the iconic image of 54,000 runners pounding across the Tyne Bridge from Newcastle into Gateshead, the theme of the garden was 'Active and Healthy Gateshead'. 

A scaled down replica of the Tyne Bridge, built by Clifford Chapman and his team, has been constructed in steels and stone, standing 14 metres long and 4 metres high, forming a strong diagonal in the design. 55,000 violas take the place of the runners streaming across the bridge.

The garden design by Alan Smith of Red Box Design evokes the hard urban and soft rural nature of Gateshead. Subtle references are made to the landscape, ranging from the sedimentary nature of the riverside to the region's mining and coal industry to the use of materials in the Angel of the North and Gateshead Quays. 

Pockets of babies' tears and chamomile are interspersed with panels of herbs and vegetables within the urban framework and beneath the bridge to soften the area and to signify the opportunity to grow healthy foods in urban locations. 'Green gym' equipment offers visitors the chance to physically engage with the garden on the bank side of the river Tyne. 

The whole exhibit was then installed on the Quayside over the weekend of the Bupa Great North weekend, 18-19 September 2010.

Gateshead Council has a proud history of presenting award-winning gardens at RHS Chelsea Flower Show and is also European City of Sport for 2010. Gateshead boasts a richness of rural and natural environments, such as the Great North Forest, offering local people the chance to use the borough's urban and rural open spaces for sport and activity to support well-being and reduce health inequality.