by Rachael Forsyth | 28 Apr 26 | Garden Design, News, RHS Chelsea Flower Show
Spacelift, a new AI-assisted platform, will debut at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026. It combines artificial intelligence, spatial measurement technology and the professional design methodology of Matt Keightley to help homeowners design, plan and manage their outdoor spaces.
Using spatial mapping and measurement technology, the platform enables users to:
- Capture and map outdoor spaces with real-world accuracy
- Generate expert-led AI-assisted designs tailored to their layout, lifestyle and environment
- Receive structured to scale plans, including planting schemes, materials and spatial layouts
- Access “shop-the-look” functionality
- Connect with recommended local trades to deliver the project
The platform isn’t intended to remove the role of a garden designer. Instead it is designed to, “support and extend the industry, creating new opportunities for designers, retailers and developers, while enabling more people to engage meaningfully with their outdoor space,” said Spacelift.
Spacelift will be brought to life at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026, where three full-scale show gardens, each designed using the platform, will be unveiled.
Keightley, co-founder and creative director at Spacelift, said:
“We’re used to using technology to design every part of our homes – except our gardens. Spacelift changes that. It gives people a starting point, a plan, and the confidence to actually create something – not just imagine it.”
Maeve McDonald, co-founder and CEO, added:
“This is about more than design. It’s about building a platform that supports outdoor space over time – combining AI, data and expertise to help people make better decisions for their homes and the environment.”
Future developments include:
- Advanced plant intelligence to track growth, health and maintenance
- Seasonal recommendations and ongoing care guidance
- Enhanced spatial measurement for real-world build accuracy
- Sustainability tools including carbon impact tracking, native planting and biodiversity optimisation
by Holly Chapman | 25 Sep 25 | Garden Design, News, Sustainability
Garden designer Tom Massey has written a new book, RHS Waterwise Garden: Sustain Your Garden Through Drought & Flood, which explores techniques and case studies for reducing water use in planting and design, available to buy now.
Available to pre-order since August, the new book has officially been published today.
In Waterwise Garden, Massey also explains how to design a garden that will use water efficiently, withstand drought and mitigate flooding. Massey says:
“Join me in rethinking how we value, protect and preserve water in our gardens – and beyond.”
Suitable for the changing climate, the book has been published in association with the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) and written in close collaboration with its science team, developed by publisher DK Living UK.
The Garden Museum is hosting a talk with Massey as part of the book’s launch, joined by Sheila Das, head of gardens and parks at the National Trust; and Mark Gush, head of environmental horticulture at the RHS.
RHS Waterwise Garden: Sustain Your Garden Through Drought & Flood written by Tom Massey is available to buy here.
by Bethany Vann | 21 Mar 25 | Garden Design, News, RHS Chelsea Flower Show
Finishing touches are being made by members of Down’s Syndrome Scotland to two custom-made timber benches which will feature in the charity’s garden at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
Designers of the ‘Down’s Syndrome Scotland Garden’, Nick Burton and Duncan Hall of Burton Hall Garden Design, joined the charity members at the workshop hosted by Laurence McIntosh.
Laurence McIntosh has been commissioned to design and build hand-made curved timber benches, which will form two seating areas in the garden.
Credit: Kevin McCollum
Each one is made from solid European oak and features 21 slats and three sets of legs, a reference to the charity’s symbolic numbers three and 21.
One of the benches will also feature a hand-engraved gaelic proverb: “Hard as the Heather, Lasting as the Pine”. It will be positioned under the garden’s Scots Pine.
Members of the charity got hands-on-experience at the Edinburgh based workshop, learning how to sand down wood pieces, screw some of the bench components in, and wood-carved etchings that will form part of the RHS Chelsea garden benches.
Designer Nick Burton comments:
“We hope our ‘Down’s Syndrome Scotland Garden’ at RHS Chelsea will provide a national platform to celebrate the life of people with Down’s syndrome through its reflection of their unique qualities, such as their compassion and empathy, as well as their positivity and determination.
“We are also proud to use our garden as a chance to showcase craftsmanship from Scottish artisans to an international visitor base at the world’s most famous flower show!’
He adds that this workshop day marks a “significant moment” in the garden’s journey.
The garden will be on display at RHS Chelsea Flower Show, which takes place 20 – 24 May 2025.
by Aidan Williams | 22 Oct 24 | Garden Design, News, RHS Chelsea Flower Show
Grant-making charity Project Giving Back (PGB) will fund a cohort of gardens for UK charities at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025, all of which will be permanently relocated after the show to continue benefitting the good causes that have inspired them.
PGB has funded 42 gardens at Chelsea to date and intends to have funded up to 60 gardens for good causes over five years, with 2025 being the penultimate year.
Next year’s cohort includes award-winning designers Jo Thompson, Joe Perkins, Thomas Hoblyn and Allon Hoskin and Robert Beaudin of Modular, alongside RHS Chelsea newcomers Nick Burton and Duncan Hall.
Wide ranging benefits of exposure at RHS Chelsea can be felt by the good causes PGB partners with, including increased funding, supporter engagement and public awareness of their services.
Hattie Ghaui, CEO of Project Giving Back, says: “We’re excited to be collaborating with another group of talented designers for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025, helping to bring the vital work of many deserving causes into the spotlight.
“RHS Chelsea has always inspired innovative thinking about our green spaces and provides a unique platform to raise awareness.
“We are looking forward to seeing our 2025 gardens come to life and witnessing the ripple of positive impact they will create for the charities, both during the show and for the long term in their legacy locations.”
Jo Thompson has designed a garden for The Glasshouse, a social enterprise that offers horticultural training and employment to women prisoners reaching the end of their custodial sentences.
Joe Perkins is collaborating with The King’s Trust on a garden that draws parallels between seeds and young people, showing their ability to thrive, even in the most inhospitable environments, given the right conditions.
The vital work of end of life care providers is the inspiration for Thomas Hoblyn’s garden for Hospice UK, which will be relocated to St Cuthbert’s Hospice in Durham following the show.
Allon Hoskin and Robert Beaudin of Modular have designed a garden for Pathway, the charity that supports people who have experienced homelessness to access inclusive health care.
RHS Chelsea newcomers Nick Burton and Duncan Hall are working with Down’s Syndrome Scotland on a garden that celebrates the positive attributes of people with Down’s Syndrome and highlights the daily challenges people with the condition face.
For 2026, Project Giving Back will be taking a look at past applicants which were unsuccessful and this approach was announced earlier this year.
For more information, you can visit Project Giving Back’s website or email info@givingback.org.uk.
In other news and not connected to Project Giving Back, Children With Cancer UK will be showcasing a sanctuary garden at Chelsea called ‘A Place To Be…’
The garden is aimed at being a place where children recovering from cancer can be themselves, away from doctors, worried parents, and their own fears, and more information about it can be found online.
Elsewhere, Monty Don is set to design his first ever garden at Chelsea Flower Show, celebrating the UK’s love of canine companions.
by Bethany Vann | 19 Sep 23 | Garden Design, News
Project Giving Back (PGB) has extended its support of gardens for good causes at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show to 2025 and 2026.
Established in 2021, PGB pledged to fund 42 gardens at RHS Chelsea in 2022, 2023 and 2024, with an original investment of around £12m. The charity supported 15 gardens at this year’s event, including several award winners.
The success of the scheme is attributed as the reason for extending support for an additional two years. Speaking at the opening of the 2023 Gardens for Good Causes Exhibition, PGB’s CEO Hattie Ghaui, says: “We know from having to turn down some incredibly strong funding applications over the past couple of years that there are so many wonderful stories waiting to be told.”
The focus in the final two years “will be on funding gardens intended to be repurposed in UK locations not yet covered to date,” says PGB chair of trustees and RHS vice-president, Rosie Atkins, with a focus on charities and designers who will be delivering garden plans for Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, East Anglia and the North East of England.
Expressions of interest for 2025 funding will be open from 22 September to 3 November this year.
by Bethany Vann | 21 Jul 23 | Domestic Landscaping, Nature & Biodiversity, News, Topics
The Samaritans Listening Garden, which debuted at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in May, is now being reimagined for festivals. It will travel around the UK this summer in partnership with the Samaritans Festival Branch, including a trip to this weekend’s Latitude music and art festival.
Since Festival Branch’s inception in 1973, volunteers have attended around 550 festivals to date, providing support to almost 2,000 festival goers across 16 festivals in 2022.
The Samaritans’ show garden was awarded a Silver Gilt medal at Chelsea this year, with its planting and hard landscaping designed to create a calming environment, to encourage visitors to sit, reflect and listen.
A re-imagined version of the garden will attend this weekend’s Latitude Festival as part of its post-show purpose, a requirement for all RHS show gardens this year.
Darren Hawkes, the garden’s designer and listening volunteer, says: “Latitude is just one part of Samaritans Listening Garden’s legacy. As well as travelling to Eisteddfod in Wales next month, elements of the original garden will be relocated to a number of our branches this year, such as Taunton and Plymouth.
“Our core message that listening can save lives will be reaching more and more communities as time goes on and I personally can’t wait to work on its relocation at my own branch in Truro next year.”
Samaritans Listening Garden designed by Darren Hawkes Landscapes at Chelsea Flower Show London – May 2023 – sponsor Project Giving Back. Photography by Stephen Studd photographer
A remodelled version of the show garden will be permanently relocated at a Samaritans branch where it will continue to inspire and provide a safe haven for those who need it.
by Nina Mason | 25 May 23 | Garden Design, Nature & Biodiversity, News, Topics
Protestors from environmental campaign group Just Stop Oil have been arrested after throwing orange paint across the RBC Brewin Dolphin Garden this morning.
The garden, designed by Paul Hervey-Brookes, was targeted by three protestors around 9am. Hervey-Brookes has called the garden “permanently destroyed”, while contractor Gareth Wilson – who built the garden – wrote on social media that “fuming is an understatement.”
Wilson added that “stupidity knows no boundaries, especially as the RHS is pushing sustainability at the very top of its agenda. Gardens that aren’t sustainable simply don’t get accepted by the RHS.”
This year is the first year the RHS has made it mandatory that all gardens are relocated after the show.
The three activists have been arrested on suspicion of causing criminal damage.
by Nina Mason | 24 May 23 | Domestic Landscaping, Garden Design, Long Reads, Topics, Website Exclusive
We feel that Chelsea is the annual opportunity to learn from our incredible horticulturists on a number of levels; about how plants benefit not only plants and soil but our bodies too. Surely this is as relevant as finding out the latest on cultivating a stunning rose, and there is a place for both.
Weeds are taking centre stage at Chelsea this year – and with good reason. Weeds are our pioneer plants and are all healers, in one way or another. They are natural, wild plants. They form the basis of all our human medicines, and now is a brilliant moment to bring them to centre stage and really address what else they can bring to the table, or bring to us if we give them the space.
Our A Rewilding Britain Landscape at last year’s Chelsea was not about simply letting plants run wild; it showcased our plantsmanship, plant specialism and finest horticultural practice, speaking to our collaboration with nurseries to achieve the healthiest garden possible for soils, insects, creatures and humans. We used native planting because of its fundamental contribution to a healthy and flourishing biodiversity, for our insects and birds and mammals – where the ecological trajectory starts reverting to where it should be, rather than its current downwards spiral.
As part of this, we also veto the use of artificial pesticide, herbicide and fertiliser, not only for soil and species protection, but also for air and watercourse health, preferring to incorporate and promote the skilled techniques behind organic land practise, biodynamics and nourishing composting methods. Many designers and plant growers across the industry feel the same way and so it is not surprising that the rising trend is towards a more coherent system and a deeper look at what can be achieved when working within a more reasonable resource and supply frame.
Surely this is the space and moment, each May at the Royal Hospital Chelsea showground, for our brightest and boldest pioneer designers, for the highest innovation, excellence and ideas in horticulture and gardens, and for our explorers and celebrants of the plant kingdom, to come together and give the public a truly magical and inspiring ride, with fresh and informative content to get us all thinking, dreaming, and imagining.
© Dave Watts
About Urquhart & Hunt
Urquhart & Hunt believe that creating beauty through careful design is an essential part of ecological restoration. Paying respect to the natural and cultural history of a landscape, they weave a tale of connection to the earth that increases biodiversity and habitat health, celebrating plants and people through horticultural prowess.
by Bethany Vann | 24 May 23 | Garden Design, Long Reads, News, Sustainability, Topics, Website Exclusive
Food education charity, School Food Matters is celebrating its 15th year anniversary with an edible show garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, designed by Harry Holding Studios, to promote the importance of having access to nature and outdoor learning for children.
Over those 15 years, the charity has benefited hundreds of schools and 200,000 children across the UK with fully funded food education programmes, backing the message that every child in every school should have access to a garden whereby they can experience the advantages both nature and healthy eating has on one’s mental and physical health.
School Food Matters has partnered with garden designer Harry Holding of Harry Holding Studios to deliver its message to this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show, through the creation of a sustainable and edible show garden.
Holding says: “School Food Matters and myself have had a relationship for two years now and we’ve been trying to get the show garden off the ground. Obviously, it’s very challenging; being a charity they don’t have loads of funds to actually fund it themselves. And then we were very fortunate to come across Project Giving Back.”
Project Giving Back is sponsoring 15 gardens at Chelsea this year, enabling several charities and organisations the opportunity to showcase the importance of their work.
The School Food Matters Garden has the needs of school children at its heart, with a landscape designed with childlike adventure in mind to encourage them to explore and be inspired by nature.
School Food Matters Garden, credit to the RHS
“The garden is an immersive and edible forageable landscape for children. It’s really about trying to highlight different food sources that are available and moving very far away from plastic wrap vegetables on supermarket shelves to really interesting, unique and kind of wacky and fun and colourful and scented and wonderful plants.
“The built elements of the garden represent the raw elements that are required for food production. So, we’ve got round earth walls that represent soil, a naturally filling shallow pool to highlight the importance of water, and colourful ribbons of flowering plants to bring that story of pollinators into the picture, which is obviously vital for food production.
“We’re honing in on the different messages that School Food Matters are about which is basically campaigning for policy change and healthy eating in children and schools. But also the practicalities of delivering green projects and educating children about plants on the ground.”
More than 80% of the garden’s planting is edible, with zero concreate used, adhering to the sustainability of the garden while offering inspiration for the public during Chelsea week and for the schools who will be receiving the garden after the show closes.
New to this year’s show, all RHS Chelsea gardens are now required to have a plan for life after the show, adding a layer of complexity and need for longevity in the designs.
“We’re taking about 75% of it to a school in Ealing in London, which is going to have the main built elements like our round earth walls.
School Food Matters Chelsea Garden, credit to the RHS
“Then about 25%, including some of the wetter loving species of plants, will go up to a school in Liverpool. We split the plants along a moisture gradient; the plants that are going to be more suited to the various environmental conditions that are present in those sort of cities.
“So, we’re not recreating the same garden; we’ll redesign and reimagine it and repurpose it for those schools and the beneficiaries to make sure it actually works for what they want and need.”
Providing safe green spaces for children in schools, who would otherwise not have the opportunity to benefit from the advantages of regularly engaging with nature, is a mission close to designer Holding’s heart – a noble cause that ensures the School Food Matters garden will continue to have a lasting impact for years to come after the show.
“The fact it is really going to benefit thousands of kids and families for decades to come is really exciting. For us , it’s one step forward. We’ve got two schools now with two edible classrooms. I think every school across the country needs to have access to an edible classroom and a garden where they can grow and engage with nature.”
Holding’s garden has been awarded a Silver Gilt medal in the All About Plants category, an outstanding achievement for the designers first appearance at Chelsea and a testimony to the garden’s lush plantation.
Visit the School Food Matters Garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show which is in full swing now until 27 May.
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by Nina Mason | 24 May 23 | Garden Design, Long Reads, Nature & Biodiversity, Sustainability, Topics, Website Exclusive
The Fauna & Flora Garden at this year’s Chelsea has been four years in the making. Garden designer Jilyane Rickards was fresh from winning a Gold medal and the People’s Choice Award at the 2019 show when she started designing the next one – one which would have as much gravitas as the last.
Whilst her show garden four years ago highlighted the work CAMFED does to support females in rural or poor communities in Africa to receive an education, Rickards’ latest garden – showcased this week at the Royal Hospital Chelsea – will raise awareness of a mountain gorilla conservation project by Fauna & Flora to save these endangered species and their habitats.
“I could only design a garden for something that I was truly passionate about,” says Rickards. “There’s no point doing it otherwise. It’s really stressful, and that’s only worth it to me if it’s something that I believe in passionately. Both gardens have been to raise public awareness of both of the charities and to make a different; for me as a designer, making a difference makes it all worthwhile.”
It’s not just the concept of The Fauna & Flora Garden that draws your attention, though; it’s the efforts of Rickards and Tecwyn Evans – managing director of Living Landscapes, which built the garden – to make the show garden as sustainable as possible. Combined, these make the The Fauna & Flora Garden worth the wait.
Project Giving Back
Credit: Neil Hepworth
It took Project Giving Back to secure the necessary funding to bring it to life. Two private individuals set up the scheme after seeing charities suffering from the Covid-19 pandemic. Project Giving Back enables charities to apply for a fully funded garden at Chelsea and have the opportunity to bring their message to a global stage. Fauna & Flora is one of this year’s fortunate recipients.
With funding secured, Rickards got the green light to bring the garden to life. Whilst she interviewed a few contractors, it was Evans – whose company has built numerous award-winning show gardens – who felt most aligned with her vision. “I designed the garden with sustainability at the core and the heart of every decision that I made; everything had to have the most sustainable outcome that I could possibly imagine or get hold of. So, I said to Tec, ‘This is a sustainable garden. I want to do this cement free – how do you feel about that?’ Most landscapers would go, ‘I don’t know,’ but he went, ‘Great! How can we do it?’ And that was that.”
It was important to Rickards that Evans join her on a trip to central Africa to see the landscape and experience the community and the conservation project. “You can’t do that with photographs,” says Rickards. “I needed to have him there, and he was totally on board with it.”
The relationship between designer and contractor is so strong because they are coming from the same baseline, she adds – the baseline being that “everything has got to be as sustainable as possible.” In fact, everyone involved in the project has been coming from this baseline, including Fauna and Flora and the Eden Project, where the show garden will be relocated once Chelsea closes its doors at the end of the week.
Working with the Eden Project
This isn’t the first time Rickards has worked with the Eden Project, which grew the plants for the CAMFED garden and is doing the same for the Fauna & Flora Garden. We meet there just over a month before Chelsea week, not long before the team will have to be on site to start the build. They’re filming promotional videos for the garden in the Rainforest Biome when I arrive – a humid environment which is perfect for the garden’s plants to thrive when it is rehomed there after the show.
Filming promotional videos at the Eden Project
Considering how close Chelsea is at this point, both Rickards and Evans are remarkably calm, with just the finishing touches remaining. Everything that could be pre-built was completed before Christmas, leaving no doubt as to why Rickards calls Evans “an absolute dream” because of his organisation. From January to April, Evans focused on the details. “We’re creating a natural environment which is supposed to have been there for ages, so we have to get all the weathering and the textures and the sun wear on the kiosk” – a key feature of the show garden – “and bash up the sign to make it look rusty,” explains Evans.
He was also up in Scotland in January confirming the boulders – a waste product from farming – which are being donated temporarily by CED Stone Group. These were positioned and stacked, then numbered in accordance with the order they will need to be placed. “The whole thing is like a military operation, it is planned to that degree,” he says.
Building without cement
That’s not to say there haven’t been “meltdowns” along the way. Finding a haulage company to deliver the plants from the Eden Project in Cornwall to the showground on the two necessary dates proved difficult, to say the least. And whilst Evans was more than happy to oblige to the ‘cement free’ brief, finding an alternative had its challenges.
“Because we have no cement in the construction of the garden, we have an issue where we’re lifting the soil levels up by two metres at the back, and that needs to be retained. We can’t use what would be a standard cement L-shaped frame because it’s contrary to what we’re doing; so, we looked at gabions. But suppliers could not get their heads around what we were trying to do in terms of placing boulders on top of it; it was structurally too much for them. Finally, two months ago, we decided that gabions weren’t the way forward. We had nothing.”
The Fauna & Flora Garden. Credit: Neil Hepworth
Fortunately, after a lengthy Google search, Evans came across Rootlok. “It’s a really cool system, from a landscaping point of view. It’s basically structural sandbags that you can grow in. The sandbags are placed on a frame which goes into the compacted area behind to become a retaining wall. It looks a bit like a World War I trench on the outside, but it has the structural integrity because of the recycled plastic structure that goes inwards and is compacted, holding it all in place.”
The lengths Rickards and Evans have gone to create a sustainable garden – with zero cement, zero waste, borrowed boulders and the majority being relocated to the Eden Project – has been worth their while. The garden stands tall at the event, with a pathway up to a waterfall cascading from the carefully placed boulders – one of which took three hours to position, says Evans. But whilst there were a few snags, such as one of the bags for the Rootlok system being pierced by a telehandler fork, the build went mostly as Evans had hoped, and he says it would have been “lovely to be recognised” by the Best Construction Award.
Unfortunately, the accolade went elsewhere, and the Fauna & Flora Garden received a Silver medal, leaving Rickards to question whether Chelsea is the right platform for her and whether the RHS “understands” such a garden. Evans says he would return to the show, but only if he was offered “the right garden that doesn’t have concrete in it – no concrete, no cement, no waste.”
Without the research, the preparation and the effort to find sustainable alternatives being recognised, though, you could argue this approach would rarely receive a Gold medal. The success then, perhaps, is in raising awareness of a charity such as Fauna & Flora and its remarkable conservation work, and of that there is no doubt.
by Nina Mason | 23 May 23 | Garden Design, News, Topics
This year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show is set to be the last for those behind the Memoria & GreenAcres Transcendence Garden.
Garden designers Andrew Wilson and Gavin McWilliam, and David Dodd – managing director of prolific contractor The Outdoor Room – have all said they will probably not be returning to the world-famous show as they look to welcome the next generation of designers and landscapers.
Whilst The Outdoor Room will continue to build show gardens, Dodd says the Transcendence Garden is “a fantastic one for me to bow out on.” It is the third show garden he was worked on with Wilson and McWilliam. “Every time it’s an absolute wonderful atmosphere with the ultimate professionalism,” he says.
From left to right: Andrew Wilson, David Dodd, Gavin McWilliam
The level of engineering required, though, made it the “scariest garden I’ve ever built by a long way,” and its plot on Main Avenue is the only one he was yet to build on until this year.
For Wilson, who turns 64 in July, it is time to “hand over and pick up the next generation.” Graduates of the London College of Garden Design, co-founded by Wilson, were out in their droves at Chelsea this year, with one graduate – Tom Massey – just a few gardens away on Main Avenue.
McWilliam, meanwhile, wants to dedicate more time to his family and to his practice, McWilliam Studio. “It does take a huge toll on your family and everybody else around you, and I think doing Chelsea on an ongoing basis is very challenging,” he says.
The Transcendence Garden also closes a “nice completion cycle,” adds McWilliam. “It was 20 years ago that I started this career in landscape when my father died, which is why this garden is so important to us. It was 20 years ago that I met Andrew and we’ve worked together for 17 years. We’ve done 10 years at Chelsea, doing five show gardens in that time, and it just feels like everything’s complete. I feel at peace stepping away from it all. I don’t think you could have a better person to design with, a better person to build the garden or a better sponsor – and it’s only when all those things come together that you get something really beautiful.”
Read more about Andrew Wilson stepping away from exhibiting at Chelsea in the June issue of Pro Landscaper, out this week.
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by Bethany Vann | 23 May 23 | Domestic Landscaping, Garden Design, Nature & Biodiversity, News, Sustainability, Topics
With a full slate of idyllic biodiverse show gardens on display, the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2023 is well underway, and the medals have finally been revealed.
See here a full list of the Gold Medal winners lining Main Avenue:
Horatio’s Garden
Designed for the UK spinal rehabilitation charity, Horatio’s Garden puts the priority of all those with different mobility needs at its heart, with every element of the garden influenced by the experiences of patients with spinal injuries.
The garden was designed by Harris Bugg Studio- the owners Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg have both previously won Gold medals at Chelsea in years prior.
Horatio’s Garden will be relocated to the Princess Royal Spinal Cord Injuries Centre in Sheffield, to aid in the rehabilitation of patients.
Olivia Chapple, founder and chair of trustees, Horatio’s Garden says: “This garden is a story of people coming together to make something very special. From the inspiring individuals that make up the transformative community that is Horatio’s Garden to all the dedicated and talented people that worked with us to create the garden.
“We are so grateful to Charlotte and Hugo from Harris Bugg Studio, for pushing the boundaries to create such a thoughtful, pioneering and exquisite garden. “
Harris Bugg Studio has also won the coveted Best in Show award for Horatio’s Garden, On selecting this year’s winner. Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg comments on their win: “It’s a really special garden for us because of the nature of the charity. Horatio’s is a charity about gardens and how they help on journeys of healing and so it feels absolutely right that it should win Best in Show.”
Horatio’s Garden, credit to the RHS
Centrepoint Garden
At the garden’s centre is the remains of a dilapidated Victorian townhouse reclaimed by nature, a stark ideology of ‘home’ and what it means to be young and homeless.
With the planting scheme the central focus, designer Cleve West admitted ahead of the show: “I just want to do a good job that’s going to get a lot of publicity for Centrepoint. So, it’s going to be a Marmite garden in that people will either love it or hate it. As long as people are talking about it, that’s fine by me.”
Far from being Marmite, the Centrepoint garden has won the prestigious Best Construction Award for contractor Crocus.
Centrepoint Garden, credit to the RHS
The Nurture Landscapes Garden
The garden, designed by Sarah Price, is inspired by Cedric Morris’s paintings and the garden he kept at Benton End, Hadleigh. The artist is recognised for breeding and painting bearded iris and producing at least 90 named varieties.
The sixteenth century surroundings at Benton End have inspired the contemporary use of locally sourced and sustainable materials to create structural features indicative of the era.
The garden is sponsored by Nurture Landscapes, one of the largest green service providers in the industry, founded by Peter Fane. His brother, Mark Fane’s company Crocus built the sustainable show garden.
The Nurture Landscapes Garden, credit to the RHS
Myeloma UK — A Life Worth Living Garden
The garden’s transformative design offers a reminder to live in the moment and appreciate the present, encouraging a celebration of the intricacies of nature and the positive impact it can have both mentally and physically.
Veteran Chelsea Garden designer, Chris Beardshaw says: “What I would like people to feel is the joy of the garden, an appreciation of the delicate fragility of the natural space and, almost by definition, the delicate fragility of our own lives; to feel the importance of enjoying the moment we’re in.”
The Myeloma Garden marks the 25th anniversary for the charity which assist patients and raise awareness of the incurable but treatable blood cancer.
Myeloma UK — A Life Worth Living Garden, credit to the RHS
A Letter from a Million Years Past
Designer Jihae Hwang celebrates her home country of South Korea, representing the medicinal herbal colony located in the eastern part of Jirisan.
The planting is influenced by native Korean species such as the endangered Filipendula Formosa Nakai, while the structural features were created using traditional Korean techniques with rocks and soil.
Hwang says: “I’m so delighted that the RHS has recognised that my garden is a message about people’s respect for the environment; for recognizing that medicinal plants are all around us; and that people are intimately connected with – and responsible for – the health of our planet.”
A Letter from a Million Years Past, credit to the RHS
With just over four days left of the infamous show, the accolades will continue throughout, with the coveted People’s Choice Award set to be awarded on Friday.
Every show garden on display at Chelsea this year has been designed for relocation upon the show’s close, adhering to the shows overarching message of sustainability and environmental protection.
For other RHS Chelsea related news, see here:
by Nina Mason | 22 May 23 | Garden Design, Long Reads, Nature & Biodiversity, Sustainability, Topics, Website Exclusive
Chelsea had a renewed buzz today, and it wasn’t just from all the biodiverse gardens. Hundreds of visitors flocked to press day to immerse themselves in the variety of show gardens on display, and what a variety – designers this year have tackled everything from mental health and grief, from diversity to a colony in Korea, and from community gardens to insects. Sustainability was also an overriding focus this year, with some designers and contractors going above and beyond to make their garden as environmentally friendly as possible.
This was the real return of Chelsea post-pandemic, and it’s seemingly stepping up a gear towards a greener and more inclusive future. Here are a few of our highlights from today:
Sustainability was more important than ever
Whilst there is always room for improvement, this year’s Chelsea was arguably the greenest yet. Take Jilayne Rickards’ The Fauna & Flora Garden. The pathway leads up a steep-ish incline to a waterfall cascading over boulders totalling 14t, and yet no cement was used to create its structural integrity. Or Sarah Price’s The Nurture Landscapes Garden, which boasts using reclaimed and ‘waste’ materials amongst its green credentials.
Wedding of Manoj Malde. RHS and Eastern Eye Garden of Unity. Credit: Neil Hepworth
Sustainability has also been woven into Chelsea’s application process, with all show gardens needing to be relocated in some form or another after the show.
Chelsea’s first wedding took place
Garden designer Manoj Malde gathered family and friends on The RHS and Eastern Eye Garden of Unity – designed by Malde to encourage diversity and inclusivity in horticulture – to witness him getting married to his long-term partner Clive Gillmor.
Experiencing Andrew Wilson and Gavin McWilliam’s “final” show garden
According to both designers, the Memoria & GreenAcres Transcendence Garden will be their last – and what a way to bow out. The large cantilevered canopy was unmissable at Chelsea this year. It will also, apparently, be the last show garden built at Chelsea by David Dodd. His company, The Outdoor Room, will continue to be a contractor at Chelsea, but Dodd himself says this is the perfect garden after which to hang up his Chelsea boots
New campaign launched for those living with loss
Wilson and McWilliam’s garden also hosted the launch of the #DifficultConversations campaign by Jeff Brazier, who lost his former partner and mother of his children, Jade Goody, more than a decade ago, as well as his father at a young age. The campaign aims to help people open up about death, with the show garden representing a safe space for reflection.
Kate Middleton visiting Samaritans’ Listening Garden, designed by Darren Hawkes. Credit: Dave Bird / Samaritans
Kate Middleton visiting the show before 3pm
Typically, the press is ushered out of the showground ahead of the royals arriving at 3pm. This year, though, a large crowd gathered around Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, as she made her way down Main Avenue, stopping at each garden to engage with the designer two hours earlier than usual.
Celebrating our new King, Charles III
The RHS Garden of Royal Reflection and Celebration both recognises that this is the first Chelsea since the Queen has passed – as Queen Elizabeth II was an avid visitor of the flower show each year – whilst celebrating the coronation of King Charles III.
Children being encouraged to be outdoors and gardening
One hundred children were invited to attend the RHS’ first children’s picnic, introduced by new RHS director general Clare Matterson. It wasn’t the only way children were being encouraged to get back to nature, as Harry Holding’s The School Food Matters Garden sought to highlight the importance of food education in schools and a child’s right to access nature.
by Bethany Vann | 22 May 23 | Garden Design, News, Topics
This year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show will soon be opening its door to the public, showcasing the pinnacle of horticultural excellence.
The show will feature the latest in sustainable landscape solutions, from peat-free plantation to repurposed agricultural waste, with every garden on display designed to be relocated after the show closes.
Here are the first looks at some of what 2023 Chelsea has to offer.
Horatio’s Garden
Designed by Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg
Sponsored by Horatio’s Garden and Project Giving Back
A place of sanctuary and hope, designed to be an immersive restorative haven for spinal injury patients, enabling them to benefit from the healing properties of engaging with nature.
The wheelchair-accessible garden will be relocated to the Princess Royal Spinal Injuries Centre in Sheffield.
Horatio’s Garden Chelsea 2023 designed by Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg © Marianne Majerus
‘Feel Good’ by Hartley Botanic
The glasshouse and greenhouse manufacturer trade stand displays four of company’s handmade greenhouses, demonstrating just some of the ways these beautiful garden structures can be uniquely personalised.
The uplifting stand has been inspired by Chelsea’s 2023 wellbeing theme and the desire to give visitors a much-needed psychological boost.
Hartley Botanic’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show Tradestand
The Savills Garden
Designed by Mark Gregory
Sponsored by Savills
This unique verandah will form the shelter for the first ever working kitchen to feature at Chelsea, with Michelin-green starred chef Sam Buckley set to serve up a changing menu, created with foods foraged from the garden.
The ‘Plot to Plate’ garden will showcase ‘edimental’ planting, inspired by rising food waste concerns.
The Savills Garden designed by Mark Gregory.
Stonebalancing trade stand
Stonbalancing artist Adrian Gray has designed two monolithic sculptures at this years show, using 290-million-year-old Cornish granite boulders balanced as if by a thread.
The stand features a mix of flowering perennials and grasses native to the UK, with a naturalistic and wild theme to reflect the organic nature of Gray’s work.
Adrian Gray, Chelsea 2023 Trade stand
The show is open to the public from 23-27 May, with a great number of gardens, trade stands and activities to engage with and find inspiration from.
Read more about this years RHS Chelsea Flower Show here:
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show welcomes its first ever Chef in Residence
RHS Chelsea Flower Show’s coveted Main Avenue will feature a 5.5m waterfall
A Good Samaritan
Bringing Jiri Mountain to Chelsea
Show-stopping solutions
by Nina Mason | 21 May 23 | Domestic Landscaping, Garden Design, Long Reads, Topics, Website Exclusive
Over the last 70 years, the Samaritans has answered 134 million calls – that’s millions of people in need of its free services over the last seven decades. Last year, volunteers spent nearly one million hours responding to these calls, and so it’s thanks to these 23,000 volunteers that the support provided by the Samaritans is even possible. And one of these volunteers has designed a show garden for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show this year.
Garden designer Darren Hawkes has lost friends to suicide and so he wanted to help the charity which could make a difference by offering his time but also by designing a garden to raise awareness of it on a global stage.
“The Samaritans had always been on my radar as a charity that I have supported and have a personal synergy to, so I contacted them and said that I’d love to do a garden for them at Chelsea. So, we started developing ideas and hunting down ways in which we could source funding and sponsorship – and then Project Giving Back came along. I was able to apply for funding through them and we were fortunate enough to get accepted.”
The Samaritans’ Listening Garden marks the charity’s 70th anniversary and serves as a reminder to visitors how vital its services are – arguably now more than ever, with soaring costs putting many under financial pressure.
“Suicide is a very difficult subject to broach and it’s not something that you immediately align with garden design; but the idea that we might be able to create a garden that could express distress, pain, fear, discomfort – things that people who contact the Samaritans might be going through – as well as showing that there is security and sanctuary and comfort providing by the Samaritans, that is something that’s probably a bit more recognisable in a garden.”
Hawkes didn’t want to “gloss over” the topic of suicide, and so the garden had to be “authentic” and show the struggle people can experience. Aralia chapaensis will form a foreboding entrance to the garden and a cracked pathway will lead the visitor into darkness, from which it will open out in a ‘welcoming’ sunken area with an oak bench beneath a canopy of elm.
The garden also to be more sustainable than those Hawkes had designed previously. The materials used have either been “found, begged for, borrow or bought from reclamation and demolition.” So, there are few new materials quarried or manufactured.
“There was an inspired thought of, how can we take a material that is basically refuge or something that’s going to end up in landfill and hone it or reshape it to give it a new lease of life? This isn’t completely related to the Samaritans, but there is a link; people come to the Samaritans when their life is maybe at crisis point or approaching crisis point, and hopefully through time and listening, the Samaritans are able to breathe new life back into someone, or at least allow someone to take the next step.”
It’s not an easy build, though. Huge ‘curtains’ of reinforced concrete weighing half a tonne will be threaded onto pieces of steel wires which are less than 5mm thick and hovered above the plants below, for instance. Chelsea regulars Landform Consultants will be building the garden, which is the first one Hawkes will have worked on with the prolific team.
But Hawkes says it’s the self-doubt that has been the biggest obstacle to overcome. “I thought about this garden probably back in summer 2021 and sustaining that vision and not having doubts is the hardest thing to cope with – to keep going and hold true to your vision.”
But keep going he has, and the Samaritans’ Listening Garden will finally get its moment at Chelsea over the next week. Samaritan ambassadors Jason Flemyng – who recently starred in A Town Called Malice – and author Elizabeth Day will be visiting the garden, and Great British Bake Off finalist Laura Adlington will be unveiling a celebration cake for the charity’s anniversary – all to shine a spotlight on this remarkable charity which seeks to prevent us losing those we love.
