A person’s daily screen time averages over five hours in the UK, which adds up to 1,825 hours over a year or 76 days in total. Hobbies are often side lined, and replaced with technology like social media or online streaming.
When wracking her brain for a garden design idea, Christina Cobb felt glued to her phone while experiencing a creative block. Then it dawned on her, while scrolling away, “I want to design a space that actually physically separates you from that sort of distraction.” And so, the Cleary Gottlieb: Time for Creativity garden concept was born.
It’s pretty common to be lost within the doomscroll, while neglected passions are pushed further away. A space where people are encouraged to pursue creativity and lost hobbies, the All About Plants garden explores what can be achieved in an environment free from distraction and technology.
Inside Cobb’s garden, built by Shovel and Spade Landscaping, a winding path led you from the entrance, through a wooden glasshouse, before reaching a peaceful seating area surrounded by vibrant planting, “where creativity, focus and time can be reclaimed,” explains the garden designer.
Credit: Joanna Kossak
The garden’s focal point was an oak glasshouse, constructed by Signature Oak. In a chance meeting, Cobb met local couple Lynn and Nick Bond during an open gardens event last year. “I fell in love with the work Nick [Bond] had done in his own garden,” Cobb explains.
After seeing the impressive woodwork and traditional joinery he’s capable of, “I knew I’d have to speak to him if I was to do Chelsea again. After a couple of wines, I had the confidence to knock on their door to ask if they would help, and they said yes,” Cobb explains.
After picking up a Silver-gilt medal for The Restorative Balcony Garden sponsored by Viking during her RHS Chelsea Flower Show debut in 2023, she always aspired to come back.
Leaving another RHS show with a medal, an emotional Cobb describes the Gold win:
“Just getting a design to Chelsea is a huge achievement in itself, so it’s even more incredible to have all your hard work and the efforts of everyone involved rewarded with a Gold medal. It actually still doesn’t quite feel real.”
While meeting Kim Cattrell was a real highlight, Cobb also looks back at the success of the garden in relation to the concept:
“In addition to being really proud of the medal we achieved, I’m so happy the theme of the garden resonated with visitors to the show and those following along at home. I so firmly believe that making time for being creative does you nothing but good, and it was great to hear that so many people agreed with that message.”
In the wake of a social media ban for under 16 year olds, the concept might be more relevant than ever.
To add to her accolades, Cobb was given a Pro Landscaper 30 Under 30: The Next Generation Award back in 2021. “When I started studying garden design and got into the landscaping industry, it was on my list of things I wanted to achieve,” she says. Honoured to be recognised, she congratulates the successes of other recipients of the award, including the Best All About Plants garden designer, Ashleigh Aylett for the Woodland Trust: Forgotten Forests Garden.
To be in with a chance of winning a Pro Landscaper 30 Under 30: The Next Generation Award, enter this year’s competition.
As artificial intelligence grows its presence across many creative professions, Andrew Duff, chair of the Society of Landscape Designers (SGLD) makes it clear how important garden designers remain to be in spite of AI.
“Garden design is an art form,” Duff starts, and while technology may offer useful tools, “it cannot replicate the insight, empathy and personal engagement that comes from working with a skilled garden designer to create a living, evolving natural space within the home.”
As new technologies bubble ahead of RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026, including Spacelift, a new AI-assisted garden design platform for homeowners, Duff admits “AI may become a useful tool for inspiration, visualisation and concept exploration, much as CAD evolved to support the design process,” but makes it clear:
“It [AI] cannot replace the human understanding, creativity, accountability and experience that sit at the heart of successful garden and landscape design.”
Launching at Chelsea, Spacelift has announced its founding retail partner has been signed by Hillier Nurseries and Garden Centres.
Other AI-powered technologies across the industry include Nick Ruddle’s Landscape AI Assistant, designed to help landscaping businesses unlock practical, achievable growth.
While AI has a potential to replace creative professions, it also enhances risk of unrealistic expectations spread across platforms such as social media. According to a study undertaken by tech and AI researcher Everypixel Journal, 34 million images are generated using AI every day. Standing at 1.4 million images an hour and 23,333 images every minute, the amount of content flooding the algorithm is growing as 71% of images on social media are now AI-generated. Garden designers such as Rachel Platt and Elohim Tisserand explore how they’re maintaining expectations amongst the surge, while planting specialist Rae Wilkinson discusses the environmental concerns that follow in tangent on pages 53 – 55 in Pro Landscaper’s May issue.
Recent global environmental research that finds AI has released as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in 2025 as the whole of New York City, as its water usage overtakes that of the entirety of the global bottled-water demand.
As the UK’s professional body for garden designers, the SGLD “will continue to champion the standards, skills and value of the profession while supporting members in navigating a changing landscape,” finishes Duff.
