by Bethany Vann | 12 Jul 23 | Garden Design, Long Reads, Nature & Biodiversity, Topics, Website Exclusive
This years’ RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival saw a significant emphasis on sustainable gardening, with designers showcasing the means to garden for wildlife all year round in a variety of spaces, featuring pollen centric ornamentals to encourage attendees to garden with pollinators in mind.
Pollinators contribute the equivalent of more than £500m annually to UK agriculture and food production through crop quality and quantity improvement. They also play an essential part in the nation’s wider, natural ecosystems.
A 10-year National Pollinator Strategy was launched in 2014, outlining how the government, the public and professionals in the industry can aid in the recovery and colonisation of pollinators.
Included in this strategy is Bees’ Needs Week (10 to 16 July), an annual event coordinated by Defra, alongside a collection of organisations to raise awareness of bees and other pollinators.
Designers at Hampton Court demonstrated the ways in which gardening can support the natural colonisation of pollinators appropriate for a variety of possible housing and spacing limitations, from transient hard landscaping methods to planting favoured by pollinators.
Achillea featured throughout the showground this year, including in Carol Klein’s RHS Iconic Horticultural Hero Garden and multiple medal-winning gardens, with its availability in a variety of shades making it aesthetically more popular.
This low maintenance perennial has a long flowering season and is tolerant to a broad span of soils, while being highly attractive to pollinators.
Scabious – Photo by Nikki Son
Scabious was another perennial in abundance this year. Flowering from June into the autumn, this drought resistant plant can strive in poor soils, gravel and humus-rich rich beds, and is pollinator friendly.
There are around 6,000 species of insect involved in the pollination of crops or wild plants in the UK, with over 250 species of bee living in the wild in the UK, including bumblebees and solitary bees.
Bees’ Needs Week outlines ways everyone can support pollinators, highlighting actions available on multi-skill levels, several of which were prevalent on the showgrounds of Hampton Court.
Growing more nectar rich plants, many species of florae featured at Hampton Court, like Scabious and Allium sphaerocephalon create high levels of food for pollinators which can be cultivated in smaller, container style planters or gravel.
Practice gardening wild in areas of the garden, allowing nature to reclaim part of the land and create a thriving environment for pollinators and other local wildlife. Both People’s Choice awards went to gardens featuring a wilder planting style, The Cancer Research UK Legacy Garden, and The Wildlife Trusts: Renters’ Retreat.
The National Wildlife Trusts’ Renters Retreat, designed by Zoe Claymore
The hat-trick award-winning Wildlife Trusts: Renters Retreat designed by Zoe Claymore focused on the ways people can support the natural colonisation of local wildlife in residential gardens, using exclusively tenant friendly features and zero pesticide.
Claymore says: “I’m hoping that it will empower people to realise what they can do when they rent and not let renting hold them back or be a barrier to reaping the rewards of gardening and not let renting feel like a barrier to supporting biodiversity and doing something very practical for themselves and for the planet.”
Supporting biodiversity and local wildlife, especially in urban areas has become prevalent in both the private and public sectors, as urban expansion continues.
The RHS show catalogue has seen a significant transition in recent years, from predominately stately designs to more accessible and practical designs that put sustainability and wildlife at the forefront, with the aim to encourage more people to get into gardening and supporting pollinators to increase the nation’s biodiversity.
by Bethany Vann | 07 Jul 23 | Garden Design, Nature & Biodiversity, News, Topics
This year’s People’s Choice Awards at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival have favoured concepts around cancer research and renting.
The Cancer Research UK Legacy Garden scooped People’s Choice for the Show Garden category. Multi-award-winning designer Paul Hervey-Brooks returned to Hampton Court for the first time in seven years to design the garden in partnership with Cancer Research after his partner passed away from the disease.
The garden symbolises the isolating nature of cancer, but is also a love letter to life, conveying hope through tranquil planting and reflection through a still pool.
The garden is sponsored by Cancer Research UK to highlight the importance of legacy pledges in wills, and was built by G.K Wilson Landscapes.
Helena Pettit, RHS director of shows and gardens, says: “What a fitting tribute to the inspirational work of Paul Hervey-Brookes. We now know how much this garden meant to him and are pleased it has clearly left a lasting impact on all those who voted.”
The Cancer Research UK Legacy Garden was already awarded one of two gold medals for Show Gardens, bringing Hervey-Brooks RHS Gold medal total to 14.
In the Get Started Gardens category, it was The Wildlife Trusts’ Renters’ Retreat that got the most votes from the public.
The National Wildlife Trusts’ first Hampton Court garden ‘Renters Retreat’ was designed by recent design school graduate, Zoe Claymore and built by Frogheath Landscapes.
The garden showcases ways to support the natural colonisation of local wildlife in residential gardens, using only transient tenant friendly features to empower renters and create an accessible entry point into gardening.
Claymore says: “The project is something I’m passionate about, I really care about breaking down that barrier and supporting people getting into gardening.”
Pettit said it was “great news” Claymore, who she said had one “a hat-trick of a gold medal, Best Get Started Garden and now the People’s Choice award for the category.”
The RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival continues through to 9 July.
For more RHS Hampton news see below:
RHS Hampton Court 2023 Awards
Climate resilient gardens to dominate Hampton Court
Zoe Claymore on empowering renters to garden
by Bethany Vann | 04 Jul 23 | Domestic Landscaping, Garden Design, News, Topics
With an array of idyllic show gardens on display, the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival is in full swing, showcasing the latest in sustainable garden design, wildlife conservation and therapeutic horticulture.
A majority of this year’s medals have been revealed, see here for a full list of the Gold Medal and Best in category winners.
America’s Wild
Best Show Garden I Best Construction (Show Garden) I Gold medal winner
Designed by Inspired Earth Design and sponsored by Visit the USA Trailfinders, America’s Wild explores three natural landscapes associated with North America: desert, forest and prairie.
The garden is intended to take visitors on a journey through the ‘contrasting terrain and planting’, exploring each landscapes’ elements.
A show garden first, America’s Wild features film screens, playing a collection of ‘expansive vistas’ from MacGillivray Films’ ‘Into America’s Wild’.
The garden was built by Yoreland Design.
America’s Wild, presented by Trailfinders & Visit The USA
The Wildlife Trusts: Renters Retreat
Best Get Started Garden I Gold medal winner
The garden, designed by Zoe Claymore highlights ways to support the natural colonisation of local wildlife in residential gardens, employing multi-season, transient tenant friendly features.
With over eight million rented households in England alone, creating a realistic source of accessible inspiration to encourage people in diverse circumstances to get into gardening could play a significant part in reversing natures decline, particularly in urban areas.
Designer, Zoe Claymore says: “I am thrilled that the Renter’s Retreat has won a gold medal and the Best Get Started Garden award! This garden has been a passion project of mine for two years but it wouldn’t be here today without the fantastic support of so many organisations and individuals.
The garden was built by Frogheath Landscapes.
The Wildlife Trusts: Renters’ Retreat
The Landform Mental Wealth Garden
Best Construction Award (Get Started Garden) I Gold medal winner
Designed by Nicola Hale, the garden uses idyllic scents and serene plantation to afford the feeling of wellbeing, its design is structurally inspired by the parterre, with a fusion of ‘planting influenced by aromatic and pollinator-friendly ornamentals’.
The edible elements of the garden can be used to indulge in a cup of peppermint or chamomile tea in the central seating area to encourage wellness relaxation.
The garden is sponsored and built by Landform Consultants
The Landform Mental Wealth Garden
The Cancer Research UK Legacy Garden
Gold medal winner
The garden designed by Paul Hervey-Brooks, tells the story of how a gift in a Will is a pledge that helps fund fundamental research.
The landscape encourages reflection, with a serene and secluded area for conversation and connection.
With parts of the garden externally hidden, stream inlets lead to a central body of water, with an isolated jetty, representing the fear and loneliness brought on by cancer, but the ‘Pledge Pavilion’ symbolises unity.
The garden was built by G.K Wilson Landscapes
The Cancer Research UK Legacy Garden
Hampton Court Palace Festival is open until 9 July with the accolades continuing throughout, the coveted People’s Choice Award is set to be awarded at 4pm on 9 July.
For other RHS Hampton related news, see here:
Zoe Claymore on empowering renters to garden
Climate resilient gardens to dominate Hampton Court
by Bethany Vann | 04 Jul 23 | Garden Design, News, Topics
The Wildlife Trusts’ show garden, Renter’s Retreat designed by Zoe Claymore has been awarded a gold medal and the Best Get Started Garden award at this year’s RHS Hampton Court Garden Festival.
Renters Retreat, the national Wildlife Trusts’ and Zoe Claymore’s first show garden at Hampton Court puts tenants and wildlife in the forefront, demonstrating the potential everyone and space can have in helping nature recover, especially in urban areas.
The garden features a variety of shade to part shade plants feature, including herbs like coriander, water mint, and sorrel, native shade dwelling plants such as ferns and fruits including wild strawberries and a multi-seasonal crab apple tree, providing habitat and food for wildlife throughout the seasons.
Craig Bennett, chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts, says: “Nature is at the heart of this special creation and it’s already attracting bees and butterflies. This lovely design will inspire all who see it – even those who don’t own a garden – to help nature and climate by enhancing small outdoor spaces. To relax surrounded by such natural beauty and wildlife is great for your health and wellbeing too.”
Situated in the garden’s centre are two dismantlable raised steel beds, between lies an elevated steppingstone, purposefully positioned to centre a person’s mind and body to the present moment when walking through.
The secluded seating area, enclosed by towering foliage affords a moment of peace, creating a space for calm.
Claymore says: “I realised that renting, along with a lack of inspiration about what I could do with the space I had available, was one of the biggest barriers to getting into gardening for me. With so many households renting their homes, I felt a large group of people were being overlooked by show gardens and set myself the goal of creating a ‘get started’ garden that would inspire everyone – not just those that owned their properties – to get gardening!
“I hope this garden inspires people to transform every bit of their outside spaces wherever they live. I truly believe that even small interventions can have a big impact both for nature and people and ownership should not be a barrier to gardening for yourself and the planet.”
The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, with 41% of UK species having declined since 1970, and a further at present 15% threatened with extinction.
Claymore’s design aims to empower renters to garden, for themselves and for the environment, combating increasing urban expansion.
Renters Retreat is currently on show at the RHS Hampton Court Garden Festival, running through to 9 July, after which it will be relocated and reconfigured at the London Wildlife Trust’s Centre for Wildlife Gardening as an exploration area for school groups.
by Bethany Vann | 22 Jun 23 | Domestic Landscaping, Garden Design, Long Reads, Nature & Biodiversity, News, Sustainability, Topics, Website Exclusive
The National Wildlife Trusts’ first Hampton Court Show Garden ‘Renters Retreat’ designed by Zoe Claymore, highlights ways to support the natural colonisation of local wildlife in residential gardens, employing transient tenant friendly features.
Over eight million households in England alone rent, of those eight million, over five million households have access to private outdoor spaces.
Garden designer, Zoe Claymore
“We really needed a garden explicitly focused on renters and what could be achieved in a rented space for novice gardeners.”
Befitting its name, the Renter’s Retreat exclusively uses a myriad of impermanent tenant friendly methods at multiple price points, creating a realistic source of accessible inspiration to encourage people in diverse circumstances to get into gardening.
“I have pennies, pounds and investment options in the garden so hopefully there is something for everybody to take away.”
From raised dismantlable steel planters at a higher price point, with its elevated stature providing a secluded habitat for insects below, without disrupting the aesthetic of a garden.
“I want to show people that a wildlife friendly garden doesn’t have to be one aesthetic, and it doesn’t have to be quote unquote messy. The chaos is beautiful, and this is controlled chaos.”
Design concept of a hügelkultur © Zoe Claymore Garden Design
An economical and buildable alternative to a steel planter is a Hügelkultur, also featured in The Renters’ Retreat Garden.
“It is a fantastic permaculture technique, with amazing water retentive properties and can be as cheap as chips but is a bit more effort than a log planter or filling in old pots and planters, that is your mid-range.”
To a multi-seasonal tree planted in a container, providing a multitude of environmental and biodiversity benefits, at minimum expenditure and labour.
Claymore’s sustainably built design exhibits how secluded and restricted spaces can be transformed into prosperous environments for plants, wildlife, and people, with every feature purposefully designed to fit through a standard UK sized door.
“The design is creative in a practical sense.
“I’m hoping that it will empower people to realise what they can do when they rent and not let renting hold them back or be a barrier to reaping the rewards of gardening and not let renting feel like a barrier to supporting biodiversity and doing something very practical for themselves and for the planet.”
With over one in two households in England’s largest cities such as London renting, supporting tenants getting into gardening is a largely untapped market with immense biodiversity and carbon offsetting potential.
At present, England is noted as one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, with 15% of species threatened with extinction and 53% of native plants in decline due to intense agriculture and climate change.
Emphasising the significance every garden can have in helping nature recover in urban areas.
“The garden is about allowing space for ourselves but also, particularly in urban cities to allow a bit more nature in, to create richer habitats for our wildlife, which is struggling quite a bit as we know.”
Everything in the garden will be in peat-free compost, with all plants growing pesticide free to further support the encouragement of wildlife.
The ‘get started’ garden is being constructed by Chelsea and Hampton show award-winners, Frogheath Landscapes, who are actively facilitating the means for the next generation to get into landscaping, through an apprenticeship training programme, with new applicants accepted every year.
A majority of the Renter’s Retreat will be relocated to the Centre for Wildlife Gardening, one of the 36 nature reserves in Peckham, tended to by the London Wildlife Trust in after the show to be enjoyed by local communities.
The Renters Retreat Garden © Zoe Claymore Garden Design
‘Aspirational realism’ is the aim of Claymore’s design, showcasing authentic and realistic inspiration for tenants to transform their outside space, both for their well-being and natures, highlighting that everyone has a part to play in combating natures decline.
The Renters Retreat by Zoe Claymore and the Wildlife Trust will be on display at Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival, the show runs from 4 – 9 July.
More Hampton Court Garden Festival news here:
Sustainable biodiversity blooms at this years’ RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival
by Bethany Vann | 26 Apr 23 | Garden Design, Nature & Biodiversity, News, Sustainability, Topics
Gardens at this years’ Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival will showcase the latest in sustainable biodiverse solutions in response to the climate crisis.
Reclaimed by Nature
Award-winning designer Jo Thompson and her team have created a striking wildlife sanctuary depicting an urban corridor reclaimed by nature.
The garden represents wildlife’s resilience and ability to thrive in the unlikeliest of places such as abandoned urban areas or industrial landscapes.
Thompson is keen to feature hawthorn as a star species for wildlife. Hawthorn in blossom is recognised as a harbinger of spring, providing food for pollinators while the dense spiky branches are ideal for bird nests.
Kate Bradbury, wildlife gardener has lent her expertise to the project by implementing a variety of plants beneficial to the wellbeing of wildlife.
Research has shown that many species of insect, including butterflies, suffered from the soaring temperatures and drought of summer 2022. The Wildlife Garden design is in direct response to this problem, with much of the planting being drought tolerant, providing wildlife with food and cooler spots to rest even in extreme heat.
Drought tolerant plants that will feature prominently include the purple baubles of Angelica sylvestris ‘Vicar’s Mead’ and the delicate yellow-leaved tree, Gleditsia triacanthos ‘Sunburst’.
Wildlife Garden Concept Art. Credited to The Royal Heritage Society
Reimagining Rainwater
Tom Massey, presenter of BBC Two’s Your Garden Made Perfect has designed the Resilient Garden set to be featured at the RHS Flower Festival at Hampton Court.
The garden is being built by Landscapes Associates, transforming a once environmentally and aesthetically displeasing domestic plot into a biodiverse garden resilient to climate change.
The goal of the garden is to educate and inform visitors on how they can implement water-saving changes to their gardens without detriment to their space.
As concerns surrounding water shortages in Britain increase, ACO, a global supplier of surface water drainage systems is partnering with the RHS and Massey to reimagine and repurpose rainwater as a resource for positive use.
Domestic practice still tends to discharge rainwater runoff into storm drains, while drinking-quality water that is in short supply is used in both the kitchen and the garden.
Domestic rainwater management is central to the RHS Resilient Garden, showcasing a multitude of ACO’s innovative water drainage solutions such as:
- ACACO’s Groundguard: stabilises gravel to create access and allow rainwater into the ground.
- ACO’s Roofbloxx: creates reservoirs in green roofs and rainwater planters, slowing water’s journey through the property and plants to evaporate and lower temperatures in the surrounding area.
- ACO’s RainDrain and ACO’s StormBrixx: Feeds rainwater into the show garden for people and wildlife and dispersed on-site rather than into the sewerage system.
Peter Ridgway, brand development director from ACO House and Garden says: “We’re thrilled to be working with the RHS and Tom Massey to expand the conversation on rainwater in our homes. We all know water is an issue of increasing national importance but struggle to achieve solutions that benefit both our own homes and the wider eco-system.”
The Resilient Garden. Credited to The Royal Heritage Society
The RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival will be taking place this year from July 4th through to July 9th.
Additional news from the Royal Horticultural Society
Royal tributes to be made at this years’ Chelsea Flower Show, commemorating the late Her Majesty the Queen.
The RHS launches a new digital preservation library with over 10,000 pieces already available.
by Nina Mason | 14 Apr 23 | Garden Design, Nature & Biodiversity, News, Sustainability, Topics
Gardens focused on water usage will take centre stage at this year’s RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival in July amidst yet another summer of heatwaves.
The return of the El Niño climate phenomenon this year means scientists are expecting temperatures to exceed 1.5C of warming.
Drought tolerant planting schemes and landscaping techniques for managing water use will feature in this year’s designs at Hampton Court, taking place from 4-9 July. They will demonstrate how gardeners can adapt their planting and landscaping practices to help make their own green spaces more climate resilient.
The Wildlife Trusts: Renters’ Retreat garden is aimed at the one in three rented households in the UK, with ideas for how renters can utilise their outside space to help tackle the nature and climate emergency.
The Inghams Working With Nature Garden, designed by Joshua Parker and Matthew Butler
The Inghams Working With Nature Garden designed by Joshua Parker and Matthew Butler features resilient planting for wet and dry periods and utilises a shallow creek to collect water runoff and divert it into plant packed sunken swales to reduce reliance on mains water.
Drought tolerant planting schemes also feature in Caroline and Peter Clayton’s Nurturing Nature in the City and Queenie Chan’s The Lunar Garden, whilst Inspired Earth Design has taken inspiration from the varied landscapes of America to include a desert themed area using dry, arid planting in America’s Wild presented by Trailfinders and Visit the USA.
Helena Pettit, RHS director of gardens & shows said: “Climatic extremes are becoming increasingly common in the UK and our green spaces will need to adapt to weather them. The gardens at RHS Hampton Court provide plenty of inspiration for visitors to try at home to help make their own gardens more resilient.”
