Awards were presented to talented garden designers today on the opening day of the BBC Gardeners’ World Autumn Fair, in association with English Heritage, at Audley End House and Gardens, Saffron Walden.
The winner of Best Beautiful Border and a Platinum award was Hertfordshire-based Rachel Sporborg from Rachel Sporborg Design. Her Border design, Free Thinking, was inspired by artist David Tremlett’s wall drawing, Drawing for Free Thinking, installed at Tate Britain’s Manton Stairwell. The Border contrasts rigid hard landscaping with soft, relaxing movement in the planting and offers a vision of the garden as a way to escape and relax from the constraints of modern life. Drawing the eye in, an expansive steel arch frames the planting and a central circulating water feature designed for physical and contemplative reflection. The autumnal planting includes grasses and perennials with a Viburnum Plicatum ‘Watanabe’ as the signature shrub.
The Autumn Fair’s Beautiful Borders are compact 9m2 show gardens packed with creative design features and planting, offering inspiration and achievable ideas for visitors with small garden spaces and challenging places. This year’s Beautiful Border theme is ‘My Garden Escape’.
Assessors for the Beautiful Borders were gardening editor, horticulturalist and journalist, Ian Hodgson, and award-winning designers Shaun Beale from Aura Landscapes and formerly from the Leckford Estate, and Pip Probert from Your Garden Made Perfect and Outer Spaces Landscaping & Design.
Ian Hodgson, Head assessor, said: “Rachel’s design has great presence and visual appeal, complemented by a restricted planting palette that carried off the vision with great panache.”
Winner Rachel Sporborg said: “I’m absolutely thrilled and humbled to have won as there are some really high standard designs and amazing plants on show. It’s always nerve-racking being assessed but it’s so valuable to get the assessors’ wisdom.”
Winner of the BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine Subscriber Border Award was Consuelo Franco, Assistant Head Gardener at Ballynatray House Estate in Waterford, for On Cloud 9, a Border design inspired by country walks, open skies and the ever-changing cloudscape.
Ian Hodgson, Head assessor, said: “We loved the artistry in Consuelo’s Border which was underpinned by a diverse range of interesting plants.”
Visitors can vote for their own favourite Beautiful Border, with People’s Choice award winners being announced on the Autumn Fair’s final afternoon.
Rachel Poletti-Gadd, Portfolio Director - Gardening Division at Immediate Live, organisers of the BBC Gardeners’ World Autumn Fair, said: “Following the Autumn Fair’s successful launch last year, we are absolutely delighted that so many talented designers applied to enter this year’s Beautiful Borders competition. The Beautiful Borders offer show visitors a huge range of ideas to take home and try in their own gardens. A lot of hard work, dedication and commitment goes into designing and building Beautiful Borders and we wish Rachel and Consuela our hearty congratulations.”
The BBC Gardeners’ World Autumn Fair, in association with English Heritage, at Audley End House and Gardens runs until Sunday 4 September and features seasonal garden inspiration, expert tips, advice and tours, hands-on workshops, and plants to browse and buy. Highlights include talks and conversations with BBC Two Gardeners’ Worldpresenters Frances Tophill (Friday), Arit Anderson (Saturday) and Adam Frost (Sunday), the Gardeners’ World Magazine team, David Hurrion and Chris Bavin, grow-your-own advice from leading experts at the Let’s Grow Talks area, Plant Expert Tours of Audley End’s organic Kitchen Garden and historical tours of its Capability Brown landscape. There’s plant and garden shopping galore from specialist growers, nurseries and retailers, a Plant Creche for bag-free shopping, and tasty eats, drinks, street food and live entertainment at the BBC Good Food Market.
Autumn Fair tickets include access to Audley End’s grand mansion with its great hall, state rooms, dressing rooms, servants’ wing, stables and chapel, and the organic walled Kitchen Garden, grounds, gardens, parklands and children’s play area. Well-behaved dogs on leads are welcome in the grounds.
Tickets available on the day. Find out more and book tickets at www.bbcgardenersworldfair.com.
