The RHS has revealed its landscape of gardens at this year’s RHS Flower Show Tatton Park, supported by Bruntwood. From larger than life designs looking to the future of our planet, to escapism and take home inspiration, there will be gardens galore as the Show celebrates its 20th anniversary.
Future Spaces
Highlighting ways to utilise outdoor spaces to better protect our future, this innovative category returns for its second year with three designs tackling some hot topics.
Yorkshire based Ellen Krier takes inspiration from the Government’s 25 Year Environment Plan, and focuses on creating a positive vision of what the future might hold for food security. ‘Food for Thought’ offers a futuristic view of farming, with each crop selected to provide a significant environmental benefit such pollination or biofuel, in the hope that food production may evolve into a progressive and thriving landscape to enhance the world we live in.
Promoting the protection that nature can provide when left to its own devices, Michael Vinsun’s ‘Future Art Garden’ was inspired by childhood memories spent in a heathland full of Birch trees which grew tightly together to form a sheltered, Cathedral-like structure. Influenced by the abstract artwork of Mondrian and Victor Pasmore, Michael aims to recreate this skeletal structure, adding a human-made layer to the concept of natural protection.
Following in this theme of protection, ‘The Oasis Garden’, by Birmingham based Dave Green, has been designed to provide much needed shady space for plants and people living in built up urban areas in the face of rising temperatures. Created with south facing courtyards in mind, three large pyramid structures frame the garden entrance to absorb the majority of the day’s hot weather, creating a microclimate and protecting the green living walls and pockets of lush planting nestled safely behind them.
Show Gardens
Cheshire-based designer Pip Probert returns for her 15th year with ‘Jungle Fever’. Created to offer a sense of escapism, the garden breaks away from traditional landscape and planting designs, playing host to exotic planting including Fatsias and bamboos, and features a contemporary hot tub and bespoke fire pit at its centre, providing the ultimate ‘staycation’ experience.
Providing the perfect escape on a hot summer’s day, Ginspiration by local designer Belinda Belt, is a fragrant celebration of edible botanicals and pollinators found in the production and flavourings of today’s most popular gin and tonics. Supported by Manchester Gin, the garden features a bespoke copper bar at its centre, covered by a clear canopy supported by four bold pillars, each of which contain shelves filled with herbs and trailing planting to mirror the flavour found in the gin.
Manchester based Leon Davis has teamed up with JW Lees & Co Brewery in celebration of the local staple’s 190th anniversary. The design draws on inspiration from across the brewing industry and uses slender glass shaped screens to frame the garden, providing a foil for grasses similar to barley and wheat. These are integrated with deep red and amber perennials to reflect the inviting flow and textures of a freshly poured pint.
Back to Back Gardens
These 6m x 4m favourites are renowned for offering a range of take home tips and inspiration. The positive effects of a good night’s sleep combined with vital access to green spaces is championed by scientist and local designer Julie Dunn. ‘Sleep Well’ invites visitors through a path of ‘plant cushions’ interspersed with soft, scented planting which cumulates in the discovery of a fully dressed floral bed. Partly covered from summer showers and engulfed in a beautiful quilt of fabrics, the bed display echoes the planting surrounding it.
‘A Place to Ponder’ by Yorkshire-based Matt Haddon takes root from the simple concept of a garden space as a place of calm and escapism. Using a combination of traditional and contemporary materials, the garden is designed to appeal to the part in all of us that appreciates the new and yet finds comfort in the old, and demonstrates that any forgotten space can be transformed into a pocket haven.
Also featuring in the Back to Back category are ‘Arley’s Flowers’ by James Youd from Cheshire and ‘Bee’s Garden: The Penumbra’ by Oxfordshire-based Briony Doubleday.
More gardens to be announced shortly. For more information and tickets, please visit www.rhs.org.uk/tatton.
