The Ultimate Event in the Gardening Calendar: Chelsea sets the latest gardening trends, features the newest and most desirable gardening products and creates an explosion of colours and scents. For five days in May, the grounds of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, are home to the world’s most famous flower show and pre-eminent horticultural event - the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. The RHS Chelsea Flower Show is the first main event of the summer season and showcases the finest examples of horticultural excellence. Other events in the London social season include Royal Ascot, Wimbledon, Henley Royal Regatta, The Proms and The Grand National.
Definition: Garden design is the art and process of designing and creating plans for layout and planting of gardens and landscapes.
One of my favourite gardens was 'Future Nature' which had been designed carefully to conserve and manage water, take into account environmental impact while also being simple and achievable enough for the onlooker to recreate at home.
Future Nature by Nigel Dunnett, Adrian Hallam and Chris Arrowsmith
Bird Houses 'Future Nature'
Seed, Grass and Foliage Tower 'Future Nature'
"The Future Nature garden presents our vision of gardens, buildings and urban spaces, filled and covered with exuberant planting for the benefit of people, wildlife and the wider environment. The ideas in this garden can be used anywhere and by anyone. Artistic use of found and re-used materials, a sense of thrift and restraint, conservation and the management of every drop of rainwater are key principles of the design. Exciting and dynamic planting are essential concepts that fit these challenging times of unpredictable climates and uncertain economics.
This is not a fanciful garden, it is real and achievable; the same principles can be applied to private gardens, community spaces, schools, factories, office developments and urban housing estates.
Future Nature is a new nature – beautiful and intimate, but also an essential part of how we could live in the future."
Dr Nigel Dunnett
The Daily Telegraph Garden by Ulf Nordfjell (Gold Award Winner and Best Show Garden)
The Marshalls Living Street by Ian Dexter (Silver Gilt Winner)
The Quilted Velvet Garden by Tony Smith (Silver Award)
The Plasticine Garden by James May (Yes, 1/3 of Top Gear)
Witan Wisdom Garden by Nicholas Dexter
(The water sprays cross each other and splash against the curved concrete, which runs into a pebbly stream under the glass floor - wonderful!)
Helios Eco Chic Garden by Kate Gould (Gold Award Winner and Best Urban Garden)
I love this garden: making use of a small space, so it can be enjoyed by everyone. This shows that every dark or unloved plot of land can be turned into something beautiful. The green 'walls' and white make this look fresh and lush at the same time.
"The Eco Chic garden is intended for unloved and overlooked spaces between tall buildings in our towns and cities.
Even if dull and dank, such spaces can easily be greened with planting to create an attractive, small and cosy garden for all-year use - and a place of beauty for those living in the high-rise buildings to look down onto.
The garden has a pronounced eco edge and could be built using discarded elements often left behind by builders and contractors. The hard landscaping is deliberately industrial (scaffold poles and boards, as well as expanded mesh walkways and simple permeable flooring), softened by leafy shade-tolerant planting.
A vertical planted wall with an integral water feature provides a living backdrop, contrasting with a further stone-clad wall. Light, canopied trees provide privacy from above, and shade below for seating to encourage users to sit, relax and enjoy the space.
Permeable surfaces allow the capture and re-use of rainwater, with further 'grey water' for irrigation taken from the buildings themselves."
Canary Islands Spa Garden by David Cubero and James Wong (Silver Award)
The Foreign and Colonial Investments' Garden by Thomas Hoblyn (Silver Award)
The Key by Paul Stone
The Cancer Research Garden by Robert Myers (Silver Gilt Winner)More information available at
www.bbc.co.uk/chelsea/
Andy Goldsworthy (born 26 July 1956) is a British sculptor, photographer and environmentalist living in Scotland who produces site-specific sculpture and land art situated in natural and urban settings. His art involves the use of natural and found objects, to create both temporary and permanent sculptures which draw out the character of their environment.
I haven't looked at the work of Andy Goldsworthy since I was at college, but thinking about garden design, and art and the outdoors, I have remembered why I liked him so much so many years ago. Staying true to nature, being imaginative with the worlds natural abundance, and doing so ethically and, in many cases, temporarily, are all good reasons to enjoy his work.
