.png)
.png)
The Hospice UK Garden of Compassion celebrates life and the connections we share with each other, and the natural world that we are all a part of, making it a fitting tribute to the essential work of hospice care. It draws on the spirit of Mediterranean landscapes, showing how thoughtfully designed spaces can play a crucial role in providing comfort and calm at the end of life.
Inspired by the Olive Houses in Mallorca and broader Mediterranean settings, it uses large craggy boulders to anchor the space and create a strong sense of being grounded in nature. The naturalistic planting is all about vibrant Mediterranean tones, with drought-tolerant plants creating a rich tapestry of colour and texture. Sculptural benches and water bowls draw you in, adding to the garden’s sense of tranquillity and reflection.
The result is a restorative sanctuary that is fully accessible to a wheelchair or hospice bed, creating a space that feels as nurturing as it is beautiful.
Hospice UK is the national champion for hospices, fighting to make sure hospice care is there for all who need it, for now and forever. It represents the community of more than 200 hospices across the UK. It fights to make sure hospices are able to deliver the best, most personalised care, and to make sure hospices can thrive today and into the future.
Following the show, the garden will be relocated to St Cuthbert’s Hospice in Durham, a location which has inspired the garden’s design.
.png)
Inspired by the work that Pathway does to support people out of homelessness, the Pathway Garden is designed with interconnected spaces that create an open, inviting feel. Boulders intersect the first section of the path, symbolising the obstacles individuals often face on their journey toward a healthier and happier life.
A sheltered bench and pergola offer a place to rest, while the water feature invites quiet reflection, echoing the sentiments of Pathway’s lived experience volunteers, who view gardens as spaces for safety, recovery, and personal growth.
A key feature of the garden is the mycelium wall, made from recycled waste from last year’s flower show. This sustainable, innovative material symbolises the unseen networks and pathways in nature, representing how individuals who regain stability and health often in turn become supporters of others. By working together, they help create stronger communities and foster lasting, positive change, reflecting the ripple effect of Pathway's mission.
Pathway is the UK’s leading homeless and inclusion health charity. It exists to improve the health of people experiencing homelessness and other dimensions of severe social exclusion. It works extensively with and alongside the NHS and other partners to develop better models of care to meet the complex needs of vulnerable groups.
The Pathway Garden’s ultimate location will be at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, the location of one of Pathway’s specialist homeless healthcare teams. Here it will be used by patients affected by homelessness, along with staff and other patients of the hospital.
.jpg)
This garden celebrates the life of people with Down’s syndrome through its reflection on their unique qualities including compassion and empathy, as well as their positivity and determination. Visitors enter the immersive, semi-wooded garden on a ‘crazy paving’ path and meander through two main areas of planting, each conveying contrasting moods.
The garden path ends at a feature building and decorative tiles are scattered into the paving at the entrance. This inviting structure sits among tall river birch trees with delicate hanging branches and is designed to look and feel like a comforting ‘hug’, a quality often displayed by people with Down’s syndrome.
Nick Burton and Duncan Hall were inspired to co-design this garden by Duncan’s nephew, Liam, who has Down’s syndrome and has been supported by Down’s Syndrome Scotland. The garden will help challenge the misconceptions and barriers faced by people in Liam’s community and encourage society to change their perceptions so people with Down’s syndrome can fulfil their life potential.
Down’s Syndrome Scotland is a small committed charity, established in 1982 to support people with Down’s syndrome, their families and their carers. It also supports professionals who work with people with Down’s syndrome in health, social care and education. Its mission is to help everyone it works with to reach their fullest potential, to celebrate that potential, and to influence public policy. It is the only charity in Scotland dedicated solely to supporting people with Down’s syndrome and their families and carers.
It will be relocated to the garden managed by charity Watch Us Grow in partnership with Down’s Syndrome Scotland, at Palacerigg Country Park, Cumbernauld, Lanarkshire.
.jpg)
The Glasshouse Garden celebrates the transformative effect of second chances through horticulture. It embodies the sense of purpose, self-belief and hope that The Glasshouse programme offers to women as they approach the end of their prison sentences.
The garden is an immersive space centred around a translucent elliptical pavilion emerging from the foliage. Informed by conversations with women who have been through the programme, the garden is full of sensory delights including jewel-like colours, fragrant plants and the sound of water. A narrow rill winds its way through the space connecting different areas and ending in a tranquil pool. The planting is rich and full of texture and includes beautiful river birch trees, ferns, grasses and roses.
Visitors are drawn to the elliptical pavilion at the centre of the garden, designed in collaboration with award-winning architects Hollaway Studio. The uplifting structure is a space for the women to gather - for meetings, training and planning for the future. The pavilion has a series of pivoting screens made from recycled acrylic which open like petals and are given a touch of jewel-like enhancement to compliment the colour palette of the planting in the garden.
The Glasshouse is a social enterprise offering second chances to women prisoners reaching the end of their prison sentence. Its mission is to reduce reoffending through horticultural training and employment. Upon release from prison, it also helps women with job placement and housing. The team grow and nurture beautiful, resilient houseplants, which are sold directly through a website and shop, as well as a corporate gifting and plantscaping service. The project is based out of East Sutton Park prison for women in Kent but its mission is to expand to every female prison by 2030.
The Glasshouse Garden will be relocated to a women's prison in the South East of England.
.png)
The garden is set in a volcanic landscape, showcasing how pioneer plants can thrive in challenging conditions. This environment symbolises the resilience of the young people supported by The King’s Trust, reflecting their ability to overcome adversity and flourish. The theme of seeds throughout the garden represents life, growth and optimism for the future, drawing a parallel with the potential within young people to achieve great things when given the chance.
Shapes, textures and structures are inspired by the forms of seeds and seed pods. Materials including heat-formed basalt, timber, steel, and screen-printed glass panels are integrated to evoke the concept of seed dispersal, symbolising the social mobility The King’s Trust fosters by helping young people gain confidence and pursue careers.
Drifts of grasses and perennials are accented by low-growing sub-shrubs in muted tones of silvery greys and greens, with pops of colour. The planting borders basalt paths that lead to a serene, intimate space that reflects the safe and supportive environment The King’s Trust offers as young people journey towards a stable and fulfilling life.
The King’s Trust believes that every young person should have the chance to succeed, no matter their background or the challenges they are facing. It helps young people from disadvantaged communities and those facing the greatest adversity by supporting them to build the confidence and skills to live, learn and earn.
In October 2024, The Prince’s Trust changed its name to The King's Trust
The garden will become an outdoor learning and garden space for students at Uxbridge College, West London. It will be used, developed and maintained by students and members of the local community, including young people enrolled on Trust programmes.
.png){kind=logo}
The Sue Ryder Grief Kind Garden provides a safe and peaceful sanctuary to sit within the beauty of nature and take a moment of quiet reflection. Grief can take many forms and affect those who have lost, or are about to lose someone, or a person themselves coming to terms with a life-limiting illness. Plants carefully chosen for their sensory properties will be layered throughout the garden to connect people with the space.
The garden takes inspiration from its eventual location in Bedford and the area’s role in the production of lace, with elements of lacemaking reflected in the design.
As the leading bereavement charity in the UK, Sue Ryder supports people through the most difficult times of their lives. It aims to make sure everyone approaching the end of their life or living with grief can access the support they need. It provides free, expert care to those affected by life-changing illnesses, so that no one has to face dying or grief alone.
Its Grief Kind campaign is a national movement of kindness that aims to give people the tools, knowledge and confidence to support one another through grief.
Designed as a safe and peaceful sanctuary where people can sit within the beauty of nature, the garden has now been relocated in its entirety to the Sue Ryder St John’s Hospice in Bedford. Elements of the garden were inspired by this permanent location in Bedford, with the area’s lacemaking heritage reflected in the choice of some of the ‘lace-like’ plants. The garden will provide a dedicated space for reflection and grieving, benefiting patients and their loved ones, staff, volunteers, and the local community. It is designed to be fully accessible for wheelchairs and hospital beds.
The Size of Wales Garden is inspired by the abundance and rich biodiversity of plant life in tropical forests, while commenting on the devastating consequences of deforestation.
313 plant species will be used, reflecting the number of tree species that can occur in just one hectare of tropical forest. Slender spires of columnar trees soar skywards. Miniature alpines cluster among the rocks, sprinkled with yellow flowers - the colour of hope.
A couple of small roofs nestle at the top of gangly posts, calling to mind the precariousness of our comfy existence, and a fungus fence gives a platform to the mostly hidden kingdom of fungi, so vital to the health of every forest in the world. This is a garden that aims to leave the viewer dusted in magic, and keen to do more to protect our precious forests.
Size of Wales is a climate change charity working with indigenous and local people worldwide to protect at least two million hectares of tropical forests – an area the size of Wales, and grow millions of trees. The charity also delivers climate change education to schools across Wales.
The garden has been relocated in its entirety to Treborth Botanic Garden on the outskirts of Bangor in North Wales where it is now open to the public. Its size has increased by 20% to give space for the plants to mature and it will be expertly maintained, which is vital given the rare species of plants it contains.
The garden reflects Pulp Friction's mission to challenge perceptions of people with learning disabilities and demonstrates the power of inclusivity through gardening.
Inspired by the smoothie bar bikes that founded Pulp Friction, where a static bike powers the blender, the garden is formed around centrifugal forces with colours and textures of edible planting spread throughout the garden, spun from the centre. This symbolises the connection between Pulp Friction and its wider community. The central space itself represents a place where everyone can come together to foster diversity, inclusion and equality surrounded by vibrant edible planting.
Every plant species in the garden is edible, medicinal or beneficial to wildlife, and all of the hard landscaping materials are recycled or reclaimed. Pulp Friction members have grown the plants and hand-crafter other elements with support of local craftspeople.
Pulp Friction CIC is a social enterprise based in Nottinghamshire that works with people who have learning disabilities and/or autism to develop their social independence and work-readiness skills through individual development programmes designed to reflect each individual’s hopes, dreams and aspirations.
The garden has now been relocated to the Stockhill Fire Station in Nottingham where it will be a safe, welcoming and secure community garden for Pulp Friction members, the local community and firefighters suffering from psychological stress.
More than 200 volunteers helped rebuild the garden, which is almost double the size of its original RHS Chelsea dimensions. Wider paths will allow members who have accessibility requirements to move through the garden and more seating allows people to sit and relax surrounded by planting. The garden will be managed by Pulp Friction and the Stockhill Fire Crew together with members of the local community.
The garden is an edible skatepark landscape inspired by the joy of playing, cultivating and growing together. It demonstrates how outdoor learning correlates with enhanced learning outcomes, well-being, concentration, behaviour, memory, and confidence.
A distinctive skate ramp forms the heart of the garden and is reminiscent of street skateboarding plazas. Multi-layered edible planting is integrated into the space under the canopy of a forest garden landscape. The planting will mimic a natural forest ecosystem that supports a wide range of flora and fauna provided through a thriving polyculture system. Various planting compositions will offer the canvas for a tactile learning environment.
The garden has been created by a collective of skaters, food growers and parents who believe greenspace, excitement, and good food should be at the heart of our communities.
PLANET GOOD EARTH is a fun, playful food education platform that inspires the next generation of gardeners to be part of the environmental movement worldwide.
Their Earth-friendly organisation hosts IRL feel-good sessions, workshops, events, installations & after- school clubs that celebrate the joy of playing, cultivating and growing together.
The garden has now been relocated to Hereford Skate Park, where it will demonstrate how growing food and recreation can work together to positively impact youth communities. It will act as the blueprint for broader adoption nationwide, creating horticultural youth hubs that contribute to green initiatives and healthier urban landscapes.
The Panathlon Joy Garden highlights the importance of grassroots sporting opportunities for children with disabilities and special educational needs. It is a colourful and uplifting space that aims to show joy is for everyone and that we all deserve the chance to enjoy life. Its message is that inclusivity, confidence and normalising difference are all connected and improving these boosts mental wellbeing and brings joy.
As the first wheelchair-accessible garden in the All About Plants category, it includes playful features that bring elements of surprise and fun, with a winding path that allows access from both sides of the garden. Undulating mounds are filled with an abundance of colourful planting. Rare and unusual plants will demonstrate how we can normalise difference, most prominently, the curved stemmed trees that are a clear illustration that difference can be beautiful.
Panathlon provides competitive sporting opportunities to children with disabilities and special educational needs.
In 2022/23, over 60,000 young people participated in its events.
This garden has been relocated to the grounds of Marjorie McClure School in Chislehurst, a school for students with complex medical needs and physical disabilities. This school was chosen as it was one of Panathlon’s original host schools over 20 years ago. The school has also recently moved to a new site which had a large outdoor space but only minimal planting so the new garden has enhanced the space significantly.
The Bowel Research UK Microbiome Garden draws inspiration from medical and botanical research, exploring the fascinating connection between a healthy landscape, a healthy gut, and a healthy mind. This beautiful and diverse garden harnesses edibles to improve both physical and mental health, using the gut microbiome as a catalyst. It aims to inspire people to rewild their diets, gardens and their relationship with the land.
The planting scheme takes inspiration from wild meadows, with a mix of ornamental grasses and edible perennials, offering a harvest for both people and wildlife. This pioneering ‘edible meadow’ combines a selection of feature plants including Persicaria bistorta, Camassia and Lupin luteus, to create a rich tapestry of yellows, blues and pinks. Although this trio of beautiful plants are commonly grown in gardens across the UK, few people know that they are great food crops too and they could offer a myriad of gut health benefits.
Bowel Research UK is a national charity that funds life-changing research into bowel cancer and other bowel diseases. Every year over 16,000 people die from bowel cancer in the UK and over a million suffer from bowel disease. The charity’s mission is to save and improve people’s lives by funding cutting edge treatments for bowel disease.
The garden will be relocated to the Apricot Centre near Totnes in Devon, which runs a sustainable farm helping children and families understand the fundamental link between the wellbeing of the soil, food and habitat, and the mental and physical health of the people who work in and around its farm.
.png){kind=logo}
The garden shows a rewilding landscape in South West England, after the reintroduction of a native, keystone species – the beaver.
A brook flows beneath a glade of hawthorn, hazel and field maple and through a winding old West Country stone wall. Below is a pool dammed by beavers and the beaver’s lodge, built around a large crack willow. Evidence of their food and dam supplies – wood-sticks, woodchip and tree debris – are scattered around. Rivulets of water trickle through the dam and spread out across a riparian meadow through rejuvenating alder trees.
An old timber walkway, inspired by the Neolithic Sweet Track from the Somerset Levels, leads across the wetland meadow to a viewing hide at the side of the pool. Native wildflowers mingle with grasses in the varied planting zones, while marginal plants throng the edges of the pool and stream.
The garden reflects the amazingly rich landscape that evolves when nature’s eco-engineers, such as beavers, are able to flourish.
The first and only country-wide organisation in Britain focusing on rewilding and the amazing benefits it can bring for people, nature and climate.
The majority of the plants have been repurposed and relocated to Lindengate, in Wendover, at the foot of the Chiltern Hills. Lindengate provides a space to connect to the healing power of nature.
Designed as a sensory haven, this garden brings joy, hope and escapism through nature for children undergoing cancer treatment, no matter where they live in the world.
Circular raised beds, made from perforated clay blocks, offer diverse sensory experiences through soft-touch plants, fragrant herbs, and vibrant mosses whilst the lower raised beds cultivate edible plants for exploration. These low-maintenance, resilient plants symbolise the countries supported by World Child Cancer to improving global child cancer survival rates through community and healthcare empowerment.
Supporting emotional wellbeing, a child and a parent can stroll through the reclaimed brick path which leads them to a scenic meadow surrounded by tall trees, perennials, annuals, and shrubs. At its heart lies a seating area which is a restful place for children and their loved ones.
World Child Cancer is the leading international children’s charity dedicated to addressing the global inequality in childhood cancer care. Founded in 2007, the charity supports 13 programmes in Africa, Asia and Central America.
The innovative 3D-printed clay blocks that make up the circular beds fit together in a modular system requiring no concrete or mortar in their construction. These and many other elements of the garden will be repurposed by the RHS to create an educational garden for children and their families at RHS Garden Wisley.
The Freedom from Torture Garden: A Sanctuary for Survivors is a place of sanctuary, of peace and hope where horticultural therapy calms, heals and restores survivors of torture on their journey to recovery.
Designed to be a curvaceous and immersive garden, where the visitor can engage in therapy one-to-one, with family, or in a group. The communal bread oven brings survivors together to share stories and build new friendships.
Sculptural streams of willow divide the space, enwrap the visitor and provide an organic place of sanctuary.A sinuous water rill offers both irrigation for the plants and restorative relaxation.
Naturalistic planting stimulates happier memories of home and edible produce nourishes both body and soul. These plants too are survivors in hostile environments.
The Freedom from Torture Garden is a place to garden. To feel safe. A place to grow again.
Around the world, torture is still used to silence and destroy lives. Freedom From Torture stands with survivors, providing therapy and support, and fighting for change together.
The garden has already been relocated to Freedom From Torture headquarters in Finsbury Park, London. Here it is being used a space for horticultural and other therapies for survivors of torture. The bread making group is already using it to harvest ingredients, bake and break bread together. It is both a reflective private space and a communal space that brings people together.
The WaterAid Garden harnesses the power of rainwater and highlights the importance of sustainable water management to combat the effects of climate change.
The rain garden designed with SuDS (sustainable drainage systems) principles, explores what a UK garden might look like 50 years from now. It features a colourful array of drought-tolerant species and materials that are reclaimed and repurposed with a lighter carbon footprint.
The centrepiece is a rainwater-harvesting pavilion inspired by WaterAid’s work with communities around the world to develop sustainable water solutions. This space efficiently harvests rainfall, filtering and storing this precious resource for drinking and irrigating whilst also slowing flow and providing shade.
An international not-for-profit organisation, determined to make clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene normal for everyone, everywhere.
The WaterAid Garden will be relocated to Castlefield Viaduct in Manchester. Slightly redesigned to suit its permanent home, the garden will stand at the entrance of the Victorian-era Grade II listed steel viaduct, which was opened as a sky park by the National Trust in 2022, providing vital green space in the city centre and protecting the area’s industrial heritage.
The show garden celebrates the restorative power of green spaces in cities, illustrating a sense of hope and recovery and inspiring future generations to 'imagine the world to be different'.
It is inspired by the architecture of St James's church, its bombing during the war and its existing and proposed gardens and precinct. Inspired also by the many other churchyard gardens in London that provide a haven for people and nature, particularly those bombed in the war, but refused to be destroyed and have been reimagined as biodiverse and slightly eclectic garden spaces.
The garden imagines an alternative world where St James's was only partially restored after the war, becoming a biodiverse garden space built around remnant walls. It includes wild "pioneer plants" of several species found in the ruins that acknowledge resilience and regeneration.
Celebrating London's 'pocket parks', often associated with historic churchyards, is a reflective space where nature takes centre stage with rich, biodiverse planting. Calm, contemplative and uplifting, it is a refuge in the city for humans and wildlife, offering dappled shade, lush multi-layered greenery, and water to engage the senses.
St James's is a historic church looking to the future, advocating for social and earth justice and empowering people. It is a thoughtful, inclusive, creative community, a place open to people of all faiths and none. It explores ideas around gathering, refuge and the importance of contemplative green spaces in the city, celebrating our history, deepening social impact, environmental commitments, and generous hospitality.
The church community tries to put its faith into action by learning about and speaking out on issues of injustice, especially concerning refugees, asylum, earth and racial justice, and LGBTQ+ issues. The church offers hospitality and accompaniment to people going through homelessness or living on low incomes. It seeks to be a welcoming space for people to reflect, create, debate.
Sponsored by grant-making charity Project Giving Back to help raise awareness and funds for The Wren Project, a £20m project to restore the church, courtyard and garden, helping amplify St James's activity and social outreach work.
This Chelsea show garden provides an opportunity to share St James’s story as it begins The Wren Project, a major restoration of the church, its courtyard and garden. It will spotlight changemakers like William Blake, Ottobah Cugoano, Mary Delany and Mary Beale with links to St James’s who have imagined the world to be different and will help develop a broader understanding of St James's and its work to raise funds towards the £20 million target, amplifying its social and environmental impact work for the future.
Following the show, the plants were relocated into the garden at St James's partner church, St Pancras Euston Road. In time, the sculptural counselling cabin and other 'hard' landscaping features will be installed in the restored garden in Piccadilly as part of The Wren Project, a major restoration of the church, its courtyard and garden.
%20(1).jpg)
As the name suggests, the garden will take visitors on a journey from the death and fear of the 1980s through to today where we’re on a mission to end new HIV cases by 2030.
The entrance to the garden is reminiscent of the flooded base of a rejuvenated quarry landscape. The water level rises and falls, revealing a monolith slate stepping stone creating a bridge to the 2030 vision of no new HIV cases. The tombstone, which once represented death and fear, is now a crossing into the garden, with the destination being a secluded terrace in which to enjoy a positive, hopeful future together.
Granite boulders are scattered through the garden, inspired by those found in the slate landscapes of North Wales. One of these boulders balances precariously from the raised bed on the boundary, looking as though it is about to fall. Beneath it, fragile sticks give the illusion they are supporting the weight of the boulder – an analogy for those lost to HIV and those who have played a role in supporting the response to the virus.
The UK's leading HIV and sexual health charity. The Terrence Higgins Trust supports people living with HIV and amplifies their voices, and helps the people using its services to achieve good sexual health.
The garden has been relocated to Croydon University Hospital sexual health clinic to provide an inviting permanent space of calm and reflection for patients, visitors and the local community. This allows the charity to continue the story of the garden promoting good sexual health for all and breaking the stigma of HIV.
Designed by Miria Harris, herself a stroke survivor, the garden has been shaped by her story and the stories of other survivors. The garden is designed as a peaceful, sensory space for recovery.
Colour, scent and the sound of water provide soft way-finding for those with visual or mobility impairments. Interconnected pathways through a contoured landscape acknowledge the difficult road to recovery with its ups and downs. Natural-built walls articulate spaces to rest and be with loved ones. A wildlife pond and stream add a soothing auditory dimension.
A bridge across the stream is a metaphor for the mental, physical and emotional connections that have to be rebuilt after a stroke. Undulating, accessible paths and a series of resting places invite respite from the world of hospitals and reconnection with the natural world.
The Stroke Association exists to support people to rebuild their lives after stroke. The charity believes everyone deserves to live the best life they can after stroke.
The garden has been repurposed at the Stroke Unit at Chapel Allerton Hospital in Leeds, where patients previously had no suitable access to outside space. It can take patients many months to recover and the garden will give families a space outside of the ward setting where they can be with loved ones in a more nurturing environment.
The garden exemplifies the joy and associated health and wellbeing benefits of garden visiting that have been at the heart of the National Garden Scheme since 1927.
With a woodland edge theme, the garden’s drift of gentle underplanting, made up of principally drought tolerant woodland plants laid out through an open hazel coppice, is designed to give a sense of calm and a connection to nature. A selection of the plants are donated by National Garden Scheme garden owners from their gardens showing the spirit of generosity between the charity and its supporters.
The National Garden Scheme gives visitors unique access to over 3,500 exceptional private gardens in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands, and raises impressive amounts of money for nursing and health charities through admissions, teas and cake.
The garden will be relocated to Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, to become the garden of a new Maggie’s Centre for people undergoing cancer treatment.
.webp)
The National Autistic Society Garden will provide dedicated spaces to the different kinds of relationships in our lives - at work, with friends and family, with partners, or by ourselves.
It will show an autistic person’s experience, particularly the use of a strategy called ‘masking’. This describes how autistic people consciously or unconsciously hide their autistic characteristics, in order to fit in and feel more accepted. Masking autistic characteristics and suppressing coping mechanisms can result in exhaustion, mental health difficulties and a loss of sense of self.
The garden has three outer spaces, each with its own character to accommodate a type of social activity: a large, covered space to spend time as a family; a more formal space for colleagues; and an intimate corner for a quiet conversation with a partner. Each space is defined by a cork and timber screen - or ‘mask’ – which together create a fourth area, a sunken, protected sanctuary at the heart of the garden. This inner garden becomes a metaphor for the inner mind.
(Illustration by Kate Slater)
The National Autistic Society exists to transform lives and change attitudes to help create a society that works for autistic people.
The garden has been relocated to the National Autistic Society supported living site at Catrine Bank, next to the river Ayr in Scotland. Catrine Bank is home to around 60 permanent or temporary residents and the garden provides a much-needed space for autistic people, their families and staff to enjoy. Some of the plants were donated to Saxon Hill Academy, a special needs school in Lichfield.
Championing the positive power of plants to improve lives, the garden represents a child's imagination as it blossoms in response to the freedom gifted by art therapy. Through this escape into art, children find coping strategies to deal with life.
Inspiration comes from Wonka's factory, Oz and Wonderland. Where colour is vivid and exuberant, shape and form are exaggerated. And, where the inner world of a child's anxiety is expressed as an outer wonderland.
Visitors will find the 'Dolly Mixture' stream, brimming with bright candelabra primulas; coloured panels featuring simplified children's artwork; kinetic sculptures and sound art illustrating the power of art to unlock imagination encouraging us to see and hear in new ways.
The garden also seeks to highlight the vital role specialist growers play within UK horticulture.
Teapot Trust is a mental health charity that provides support for children and families coping with chronic conditions by delivering art therapy.
One in four children and young people in the UK live with chronic illness and typically, feel defined by their condition, often causing anxiety and depression. Art therapy provides an escape from the pain and stigma of a chronic health condition.
The garden has been relocated to the Royal Hospital for Children, Glasgow affording long term benefits and access to transformational art therapy. The garden site is located close to the main entrance to the children’s hospital and will be an inclusive safe space for patients, staff and visitors, including accessible walkways, companion seating and later, an art therapy studio. The formal opening is expected in Spring 2024.
The garden is a celebration of the creative arts and their therapeutic power to restore lives. It is a planted canvas; a living installation that speaks of restoration through creativity.
250 handmade white porcelain butterflies, created by Japanese ceramicist Naoko Tagai, pour from a large sculpted chrysalis, made by Norfolk-based stone carver Teucer Wilson. This illustrates the sanctuary that Talitha Arts provides, and the transformational power of their creative workshops.
The garden unites sculpture, performance and planting - representing the wide spectrum of therapeutic arts. A minimalist palette of two main colours conveys the delicate moment between darkness (trauma) and light (transformation). Textural planting reflects the depth and complexity of trauma. Sculpture alongside performance ignites the stage to convey the simple message that the creative arts have the power to transform lives.
Talitha Arts delivers therapeutic arts workshops and training for those who have experienced trauma, abuse, violence, homelessness and for those living with dementia. Talitha Arts harnesses the power of therapeutic creativity - applying this across the wide spectrum of the arts, bringing hope to those who have experienced trauma.
The garden has been repurposed to St Margaret’s House in Bethnal Green - a centre for arts and wellbeing opportunities, working with communities and charities to come together to promote positive social change. Talitha Arts base many of their activities in this venue, and will continue to use the Chelsea garden for outreach, performance and fundraising. The garden is located in the grounds of the cafe - open to the community, providing a space for residents to eat, shop, learn, create, and enjoy a diverse cultural program.
Collaborating with School Food Matters means one thing - putting children at the heart of the design. The garden is an immersive, forageable and naturalistic landscape where children can explore nature and be inspired by a diverse range of edible, climate-adapted plants.
Paths will be child-sized, allowing children to create their own imagined worlds as they meander through plants, scramble over boulders and journey past the raw elements of food production: tactile rammed earth walls, reflective water, flowers to attract pollinators and light-capturing grasses.
Calming textural planting is intersected by bold, colourful ribbons of flowers, leading to a tranquil space where children can express their views on food and climate change through direct quotes painted on the central wall. All elements culminate in a show-stopping way and deliver a prominent message: nutritious food, a healthy planet and access to nature are fundamental rights that every child should enjoy.
The mission of School Food Matters is to teach children about food and to improve children’s access to healthy, sustainable food during their time at school.
It provides fully funded food education programmes to schools. Its experience delivering these programmes informs and strengthens its campaigns, bringing the voices of children, parents and teachers to government policy.
The garden has now been reimagined into two sensory pocket gardens and relocated to two schools - Alec Reed Academy in Ealing, West London and The Beacon Church of England Primary School in Liverpool. These spaces provide valuable educational resources where children can grow vegetables and observe wildlife, as well as find a peaceful place to take time out from the busyness of their days.
.png)
The Sadler’s Wells East Garden celebrates the next generation of dancers and appreciators of dance. It provides a platform to raise awareness of Sadler’s Wells East: a new theatre, Hip Hop Theatre Academy and Choreographic School, opening at East Bank, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in early 2024.
The plants are the stars of the show. Characterful trees and shrubs cut beautiful figures while colourful perennials and annuals echo layers, patterns and shapes of dance, scrambling, rippling and seeding about. The manufacturing heritage of East London inspires the garden’s materials: reclaimed or sustainably sourced brick, timber and metal.
A bent steel sculpture wends around the garden, framing different views of the planting as visitors walk, sit and even dance within the space. Its profile hints at the saw-tooth rooflines of local warehouses and factories of the industrial revolution - and of Sadler’s Wells East.
In early 2024 Sadler’s Wells joins the rich cultural heritage of Stratford, opening Sadler’s Wells East as part of the East Bank development within the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
Home to a Hip Hop Theatre Academy and Choreographic School, Sadler’s Wells East will also house a flexible
theatre which will host a wide variety of dance performances. Community will be at the heart of Sadler’s Wells East with a large open foyer that can be used by everyone, as a meeting or performance space. There will also be dance studios and world-class dance facilities for dancemakers to train, create and rehearse productions
Sadler’s Wells partners with a number of schools and colleges in north and east London to help embed arts-inspired activities into the school day. One of these is School 21 in Stratford, just 15 minutes’ walk from Sadler’s Wells East.
Plants and materials from the garden have been relocated here to help children take part in outdoor arts-inspired activities, learn about plants, and provide a space for children particularly for children with special educational needs to relax and take time out.
The Choose Love Garden is inspired by refugee migration routes across Europe and the concept of desire lines - paths we create where no formal routes exist. The design reflects the relationship between movement and permanence - travel and home.
Uncertainty and flux in refugee journeys is conveyed with a kinetic sculpture, a dry stream bed path representing waterway migrations and a weathered tree that has taken the shape of the wind.
Boulder seating provides rest and stillness yet the rock’s permanence also evokes migrants’ experience of long years in transit camps.
When people are forced to flee their homes they often take seeds. In this garden we see linear drifts of plants, representative of those growing along established migration routes, and discover what people grow when they don’t know when or if they’ll go home - when the act of planting becomes an act of hope.
Choose Love has pioneered a new movement in humanitarian aid: fast, flexible, transparent and accountable. Its lean, passionate team drives a fast-paced global movement across 26 countries.
Choose Love does whatever it takes to provide refugees and displaced people with everything from lifesaving search and rescue boats to food and legal advice. It has raised millions to support refugees and created a movement of people putting love into action around the world.
The Choose Love Garden has been relocated to Good Food Matters, a remarkable community kitchen and garden in Croydon and one of Choose Love’s partners in the UK. Their mission is to enable everyone to cook and grow nutritious, balanced meals - making a positive impact on the health and wellbeing of the whole community. The Choose Love Garden will provide a place for reflection and connection for all those who come to Good Food Matters to share meals, build confidence and develop new skills.
This textured sensory garden focuses on the connection between nature and health and well-being. The garden is designed with minimal hard-landscaping and places a focus on natural materials sourced from the locality of the site. The calming colour palette will help create a peaceful, tranquil natural haven to be enjoyed by Aspens’ community.
The garden is designed to connect to the natural affinity we have towards nature. Every aspect targets specific senses and can be engaged with in multiple ways. Its curving forms provide a sensory experience and each planting zone targets specific senses and every aspect of the planting has been included for sensory stimulation.
The idea of plant roots spreading out through the garden from the central seating area was inspired by the idea of the growth of neurons, linking nature with human uniqueness, which is core to Aspens’ values.
The garden will be wheelchair accessible and open to the people they support, their families and carers, staff and volunteers.
Aspens provides high quality care and support to individuals on the autism spectrum and with learning disabilities through an integrated network of services across the South-East. Its services include registered care homes, supported living, community outreach, day opportunities, children and young people’s and family support, Autism Central regional peer support and national online workshops.
The garden has been relocated to Aspens in Pembury, Kent where the charity has eight residential homes providing a much-needed therapeutic space. The space will mainly be used by the residents and visitors who are on the autism spectrum, with learning disabilities or who have complex needs. The surplus plants used for the show will also be repurposed and incorporated into Aspens' wider gardens.
This garden is a contemporary interpretation of a wildlife sanctuary, inspired by native woodlands and the rehabilitation of wild animals that forms part of the RSPCA’s vital welfare work. Created using a fusion of natural, sustainable and recycled materials, it demonstrates how we can have a positive impact on biodiversity and live as part of the natural environment.
In the corner of the garden sits a contemporary structure akin to a wildlife observation hide, enabling views out into the space. A natural stone feature wall, with contemporary bird nesting boxes, forms the rear. Laser-cut Corten steel contains a modern interpretation of a ‘dead hedge’, which becomes a habitat for birds, mammals and insects, recycled garden waste – and provides a place to sit.
A small stream, framed by recycled plastic, flows through the garden, creating movement and sound. It cascades into a pool, providing a spot for quiet contemplation, as well as a source of water for wildlife.
The whole space is enclosed by hedging and a canopy of native trees and shrubs, essential for birds and wildlife. Planting is in a multi-layered naturalistic style, in shades of green, whites and tones of ‘RSPCA’ blue, with pollinator-friendly plants.
The UK’s leading animal welfare charity, the RSPCA is approaching its 200th anniversary, which takes place in 2024. It specialises in animal rescue and furthering the welfare cause for all animals. Its goal is also to inspire and empower people to help wildlife in their own gardens and communities.
The show garden has been relocated to the RSPCA’s education hub at Stapeley Grange Wildlife Rescue Centre in Nantwich, Cheshire to support their prevention work and create a world that’s kinder to all animals. The space will deliver impactful experiences and bring essential animal welfare education to communities who have fewer opportunities to connect with their environment. As well as using learning in the natural environment to reach out and support young people, families and vulnerable adults, the education hub will support the emotional wellbeing and resilience of those taking part. The garden will enable thousands of people to develop kindness and empathy for animals and their environment, as well as investigative and problem-solving skills and resilience through hands-on activities, outdoor exploration and inquiry-based learning.
The National Brain Appeal’s ‘Rare Space’ Garden has been designed alongside people living with rare dementias, using their lives to inspire a space that will foster autonomy, hope and encourage activity among people affected. These are non-memory led dementias that can make seeing, understanding, and moving confidently through physical spaces extremely challenging.
The result is a space of contrasting materials to help identify and locate structural components and a simple layout that offers a balance between exploration and calm navigation. Central to this is a level path which turns through the garden, offering along its way three seating areas with visually contrasting shelters of various colours to promote independent wayfinding. Soothing water features, positioned next to each of the seating areas, will also enhance the restful environment.
Together these elements will showcase a bespoke environment for people living with rare dementias, so they can find a place of enjoyment and refuge in a challenging world. The garden highlights the exceptional work of the charity in funding world-leading research to address and support those with rare dementias and other neurological conditions.
The National Brain Appeal helps people affected by neurological conditions by funding pioneering research, innovative treatments and world-class facilities at The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery and the Institute of Neurology in Queen Square, London. Rare Dementia Support is a service funded by The National Brain Appeal that provides information, advice and support to people and their families living with rare dementias.
The garden will eventually be relocated to The National Brain Appeal’s new Rare Dementia Support Centre in London. The charity is committed to raising £7 million to create the world’s first centre of excellence for rarer dementias. The ‘Rare Space’ garden will ultimately form part of the new centre allowing visitors to retreat into a rare, safe and calm space as they manage their dementia and receive treatment, advice and support. In the meantime, the garden has been relocated to Exbury Gardens in Hampshire.
The garden celebrates the life-changing impact listening can have by taking visitors on a symbolic journey from the hugely challenging situations many people find themselves in when they reach out to Samaritans, to the comforting support of speaking to a volunteer. In 2023, Samaritans marks its 70th anniversary of being there for people who desperately need someone. Designer Darren Hawkes is himself a trained Samaritans listening volunteer.
The garden has two objectives, firstly, to create a safe space, one where people can connect, talk openly, and be heard. Secondly, the garden will depict that while the path to hope can seem full of obstacles, there is support out there and it is always possible for things to change.
The garden should feel real and raw. At one end, huge curtains of reinforced concrete are supported by thin cables, hovering above the delicate foliage of the plants below. Towering above this are giant Aralia chapaensis, spiky and otherworldly. On the ground a chasm opens to a well where we hear but cannot see water passing beneath. Beyond this the garden broadens into a sanctuary where the path trodden can be viewed objectively and some of the obstacles that seemed so overwhelming now appear exquisitely crafted, even beautiful.
Samaritans works to make sure there's always someone there for anyone who needs someone. Samaritans volunteers spend over one million hours listening to people who are finding life difficult and are available 24/7, 365 days a year, for free. In 2023, the charity celebrates its 70th anniversary.
An edited version of the garden toured various festivals during the summer following RHS Chelsea. Elements of the garden will help create permanent gardens at Samaritans branches in Taunton, Truro and Plymouth, and plants and other elements will be used at several other Samaritans sites across the UK.
The Royal Entomological Society Garden has been designed to show every person how remarkable and valuable insects are, and how important people can be to insects in the choices they make and the way that they garden. The garden will provide an inspiring place in which insects can be studied, researched and observed in a beautiful and natural environment.
The garden’s outdoor laboratory, built into a hillside, takes visitors down into the landscape, offering an ‘insect eye view’ and a space in which to study. A moveable projector screen links to microscopes in the lab, giving the opportunity to show enlarged insects at magnified scale, revealing their fascinating morphology and offering opportunities for education. The lab’s roof structure is inspired by a compound insect eye and will provide ‘modules’ permeable to insects, providing an accessible opportunity for on-site research, study and identification.
Diverse topography across the site - from rammed earth floors, hoggin pathways and dead wood, to piles of rubble, bare sand and gabion walls - provide numerous and varied habitats for insects. Water in still pools and flowing streams provides additional important insect habitats and a dead tree ‘sculpture’, cut into rings elevated on steel poles floats over biodiverse planting. The planting scheme is designed for pollinators and a wide range of other insects, with our changing climate in mind, it will provide year-round food, habitat and interest.
The Royal Entomological Society is devoted to the understanding and development of insect science. It supports international collaboration, research and publication. It wants to show every person how remarkable and valuable insects are, and aims to enrich the world with insect science.
The garden has been relocated to Stratford Cross in East London, as a teaching garden and long-term opportunity for insect study. The RES will partner with schools and universities to provide regular insect science activities and will use the garden as a basis for urban insect study. It will help bring insect science to a wider audience, encouraging the study of insects in our changing climate and a better understanding of the role they play in our ecosystems.
The Myeloma UK ‘A Life Worth Living’ Garden highlighted the work of Myeloma UK, which in 2023 celebrates its 25th anniversary. After consultation with Myeloma UK’s patient care specialists, Chris conceived a metaphorical design, based on the role a jewel garden plays in emboldening the emotions and spirit of someone with myeloma. Chris created a calm, immersive, exquisitely detailed and unapologetically beautiful, verdant garden, which deliberately encouraged the eye to linger, the mind to pause and a deepening connectivity with a soothing oasis for emotional wellbeing.
Myeloma UK is the only organisation in the UK dealing exclusively with the blood cancer myeloma. Its ultimate goal is to find a cure.
Myeloma UK is dedicated to myeloma patients – making sure they get access to the right treatment at the right time; continually striving to improve standards of treatment and care through research, education and raising awareness of myeloma.
The garden has been repurposed to benefit several sites following its debut at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2023. The trees, hedging and landscaping materials have been delivered to The Hurlet Crematorium in East Renfrewshire. They will become part of the memorial gardens, which are open to the local community, and are a place for people to reflect and celebrate their loved ones. One tree will go to The Beatson Cancer Centre in Glasgow. The Beatson Hospital has achieved Myeloma UK’s CSEP award in recognition of dedicated care for people with myeloma. The rest of the plants were sold to raise funds for Myeloma UK.
.png){kind=logo}
Horatio’s Garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show is a garden of sanctuary and hope. It embraces the mission of Horatio’s Garden charity to create and nurture beautiful, accessible and sustainable gardens in spinal centres for everyone affected by life-changing spinal injuries.
The garden will showcase the key qualities of these special spaces while incorporating influences from the Sheffield region, connecting it to its future permanent home at the Princess Royal Spinal Injuries Centre in Sheffield. Also designed by Harris Bugg Studio, this will be the eighth Horatio’s Garden, which will benefit thousands of patients, relatives and NHS staff for years to come.
The garden is a beautiful, immersive, restorative haven - the antithesis of a busy, clinical hospital environment and puts the requirements of people with mobility needs at its heart. Tactile stone cairns give rhythm and structure - symbolic of wayfinding, they offer gentle guidance when the path is unclear. Water adds sensory experiences, animates the garden and encourages wildlife. The planting is influenced by the flora and fauna of the wooded-valley sides of the city of steel. An organic and discreet garden pod structure provides a cocooning place for physical and emotional shelter.
Horatio’s Garden nurtures the wellbeing of people after spinal injury in beautiful, vibrant sanctuaries. Leading designers create accessible gardens where the charity’s team, volunteers and creatives care for people and plants alike. Its vision is to grow thriving communities and biodiverse gardens in all the UK’s 11 NHS spinal injury centres.
The garden will be relocated to form the heart of a new, permanent Horatio’s Garden for patients and staff at the Princess Royal Spinal Injuries Centre in Sheffield. The regional centre of excellence is the second largest in the UK and cares for patients from a wide geographical area including Yorkshire, East Anglia and the East Midlands.
The garden will be run by the charity who will nurture it and keep it to a Chelsea standard for years to come. The charity’s team will provide garden therapy and creative activities in the garden to enhance patients’ recovery and well-being.
The garden is expected to open in 2024 and will be the eighth garden in the Horatio’s Garden family.
The Fauna & Flora Garden offers a window into the spectacular Afromontane landscape of Central Africa’s imposing Virunga Massif, celebrating the success of the charity’s International Gorilla Conservation Programme, originally established by Fauna & Flora in 1978 as the Mountain Gorilla Project, at the behest of Sir David Attenborough.
The garden maps the journey of an ecotourist on a gorilla trek, tracing a rough track through a succession of lush and changing landscapes on either side of the Protected Forest Area boundary wall, each side showcasing the familiar, unusual and spectacular plants found in the area. Along the way is a medicinal garden shaded by Eucalyptus and banana trees; a typical tourist kiosk selling local crafts; a true-to-life gorilla nest set amongst bamboo; and an entrancing waterfall and viewing rock surrounded by plants found at high altitude.The garden aims to demonstrate the critical importance of protecting nature and how this can be best achieved by putting people and collaboration at the heart of conservation efforts.
The garden has been relocated to the world-famous biomes of the Eden Project in Cornwall, to be enjoyed by around one million annual visitors for years to come.
Fauna & Flora is a nature conservation charity that works closely with partners in almost 50 countries to protect species and habitats, while supporting the livelihoods of local people. As the world’s first international conservation charity, Fauna & Flora has been shaping best practice in community-focused conservation for over 120 years.
The garden has been relocated to the world-famous biomes at the Eden Project in Cornwall, to be enjoyed by its one million visitors a year.
The Centrepoint Garden explores the notion of home and celebrates the charity’s work in supporting young people facing homelessness. The evocative design offers a metaphor for the challenges faced by young people when their world becomes uprooted and fragmented and highlights how Centrepoint offers a healing process, supporting and nurturing young people, to enable them to grow and realise their potential.
The central structure of the Centrepoint Garden is a demolished and now ruinous house, where over time nature has taken over and begun to heal the scars. Within the garden Cleve will use a hierarchy of native and ornamental trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals, ferns, bulbs and wildflower, so-called, ‘weeds’. What, at first glance, may appear to be a dysfunctional and fragmented spac, is in fact a thriving, natural and evolving habitat, which emphasises the important role nature plays in making a house a home.
Centrepoint provides housing and support for young people regionally in London, Manchester, Yorkshire and the North East and through partnerships all over the UK.
Centrepoint aims to give homeless young people a future and wants to end youth homelessness by 2037.
After RHS Chelsea 2023, elements of the Centrepoint Garden were repurposed at one of Centrepoint’s Independent Living developments. The plants and landscape materials will offer a constructive legacy of the RHS Chelsea experience and will be used to create a communal green space, connecting young residents with nature and the many well-being benefits that provides.
Centre for Mental Health's The Balance Garden is a forward thinking community space celebrating the relationship between authentic nature connection and our urban communities mental health. The garden explores the perceived opposites of the human and natural worlds and discovers how they may be unified towards a healthy and abundant future for all. Within a harmonious space of ecologically driven planting and sensitively repurposed practical materials we herald the inspiration found in both the natural world and the urban landscape to offer an innovative expression of the beauty and healing qualities found in their balance.
Under pressures of tight budgets in less affluent areas the garden explores the importance of inclusivity and affordability in creating authentic nature experiences in the urban landscape.
Inspired by natural processes, forward thinking landscape innovations offer affordable, healthy and immersive nature-centred experiences in the urban setting. Embracing the authentic character of the local area and encouraging a sense of local pride, light touch and stewardship, the garden welcomes an inclusive multicultural community with space for social engagement and solitary contemplation.
The planting highlights wildflowers and "weeds" as an important part of urban ecology, an exploration of foraging opportunities and a celebration of a much-needed change in perception. A variety of ecotones are present from arid, crushed site waste substrates, immersive layers and a wealth of bio diversity opportunities towards wet leafy habitat, water edibles and tiered food forestry aspects for wildlife and community harvesting and engagement.
Centre for Mental Health is an independent charity which challenges policies, systems and society, so that everyone can have better mental health. By developing mental health research, the Centre equips services and decision makers to meet people’s needs and reduce mental health inequalities.
After the show, the Centre for Mental Health Balance Garden was relocated to Markfield Park in Tottenham, North London, creating a new space for the whole community to enjoy. Haringey, where Tottenham is located, has higher than national average levels of poverty and depression. Centre for Mental Health, in partnership with Wild City Studio, are monitoring how the relocated garden is used within Markfield Park in the hope it can provide a blueprint for wild, urban community spaces that can be recreated across the UK.
Visit us at our stand to meet the PGB team, learn more about the gardens for good causes, and understand our funding approach and process.
Grow2Know, a non-profit community interest company born in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire, made its RHS Chelsea Flower Show debut in May 2022 with a garden designed by Grow2Know founders Tayshan Hayden-Smith and Danny Clarke. Inspired by the real-life story of the Mangrove Nine, a group of social activists in 1970s Notting Hill, and the destruction of Mangrove forests, the "Hands Off Mangrove by Grow2Know" garden raises awareness of the profound impact that social and environmental injustice can have on local communities, and the wider world.
Grow2Know’s heart lies in reclaiming space and reconnecting people with nature and each other. Putting community at the forefront in the creation of public, outdoor spaces, Grow2Know is pioneering a model that pivots on consultation, collaboration, and place-making.
Building partnerships to activate spaces, the grassroots non-profit is committed to inspiring a culture change to implement more sustainable systems that promote biodiversity, circular economies and regenerative practices. Grow2Know is on a mission to inspire, heal and educate through horticulture - embarking on a journey to make gardening more inclusive and nature accessible to all.
The team is currently consulting with local residents on the final plans for the relocated garden to ensure it meets their needs and aspirations and is working with Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea to finalise planning permission and secure additional funding to create the new community garden.
"The garden represents two relevant and powerful messages - one of social injustice and the other of climate injustice - of which both shine a light on the harsh realities of our past, present and future, to evoke urgent action to create a better world for future generations. We aspired to break down barriers and encourage diversity across the gardening world by planting a seed of change." - Danny Clarke, Director, Grow2Know
.jpeg)
Throughout history, plants have played a fundamental role in fashion - as dye, as fibre, through floral motifs and botanical folklore, connecting us to a place, a story or a culture.
However in our globalised world, this connection has been lost. Our clothing today is more likely to be derived from fossil fuels and made using toxic chemicals, damaging human health and nature’s ecosystems.
A Textile Garden for Fashion Revolution Garden aims to re-establish the connection between plants and fashion. The garden is intended to imitate a textile, with planting in distinctive blocks of colour to create the impression of a woven fabric. Shallow reflective pools represent dye baths, with fabric or fibres soaking in natural dyes, and a series of paved seams will lead through the planting. The garden will reveal the beauty to be found in plant-based dyes and fibres and sow a seed of curiosity about what is in our clothes.
Fashion Revolution was founded in the wake of the Rana Plaza disaster in 2013. Since then, the organisation has grown to become the world’s largest fashion activism movement, mobilising citizens, brands and policymakers through research, education and advocacy. Fashion Revolution campaigns for a clean, safe, fair, transparent and accountable fashion industry.
A Textile Garden for Fashion Revolution has been repurposed at Headington School in Oxfordshire, where textile students helped dye the textile boundaries featured in the garden. It will live on as a teaching garden, for students to learn about the plants that textiles and fabric dyes are derived from. The school has developed a new syllabus which includes the study of plants used for textiles, along with their propagation and use.
.png)
Two urban households have removed the defining boundary between their front gardens to make one open positive space for gardening, socialising, wellbeing and environmental gain. The garden reflects Core Arts’ mission to support people experiencing mental health difficulties by promoting social inclusion and reconnecting individuals with their communities. The concept was inspired by designer Andy Smith-Williams' local Hackney walks during the pandemic lockdowns, in which he noticed more people were using their front gardens to meet and socialise from a distance with friends.
Core Arts is a leading mental health creative education centre, based in Hackney, that promotes positive mental health and wellbeing through a college-like environment of creative learning. Providing quality education, training, employment and social enterprise initiatives that enable people who experience mental health issues to overcome barriers, fulfil their potential and participate fully in their community.
All plants, trees and materials from the garden have been repurposed by Core Arts to create a new community garden in a churchyard in Hackney, as an extension of their neighbouring sites. Consultation with Core Arts members, volunteers and local people directed the masterplan for the new garden, devised by Core Arts staff and Nemone Mercer of Core Landscapes.
.png)
.png)
The expression ‘This too shall pass’ is a mantra passed between mothers navigating the challenges of raising young children and the associated mental health challenges that can come with it, from post natal depression, to anxiety and isolation. This garden is a garden for mothers and represents a place of transition: from despair to hope.
A cloister of bronze-toned walls and archways represent how long days at home with a baby can feel like both a sanctuary and a cage. A fractured pathway through the garden demonstrates the physical and mental journey of rupture and repair. For the planting, what starts as a restrained, muted palette gives way to a joyful, feminine celebration of colour, as the road to recovery, supported by other mothers, becomes clear.
Since 1981 Mothers for Mothers has supported families affected by perinatal mental illness, offering support to women during pregnancy and until their youngest child attends school through support services across Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset.
The Mothers for Mothers Garden has been relocated to Hartcliffe City Farm in Bristol, where it has become a place for clients to receive one to one support. Having the plants at Hartcliffe City Farm also allows the local community to experience the garden and encourage visitors from other parts of Bristol.
The Alder Hey Urban Foraging Station is a woven landscape; it is about weaving together the young and old, green and urban, play and learning and Alder Hey Children's Hospital with its community.
At its core is the aspiration to inspire children to lead active, healthy, pleasurable lives. The garden is infused with the magic of discovery inherent to foraging. Visitors first encounter the garden as nostalgic glimpses through rampant, blossoming hedgerows. Within, a sense of freedom prevails - explore and leave the path, get lost in your own world. A design language of woven forms associated with foraging are abstracted into a woven landscape. Precast concrete "strands" make up a picnic blanket laid over an undulating landscape with edible herbs growing through.
The importance of mental wellbeing, particularly in children, has been thrown into the spotlight during the pandemic and although this garden is outwardly about foraging, it uses this theme to address the issue of children’s mental wellbeing in an accessible and light touch way.
Alder Hey Children’s Charity raises vital funds to help make Alder Hey Children's Hospital a truly world-class, patient-friendly hospital for the 330,000 patients and families we care for every year.
The garden has been relocated to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital as a permanent feature that is open to the public. It is positioned outside the entrance to the Children’s Mental Health building, which opened in spring 2022. It forms an integral part of the unique dedicated children’s and young people’s healthcare campus, with green spaces that connect a cluster of state-of-the-art facilities.
A young pilot looks nervously up at the sky, watching dogfights unfold overhead, waiting for the call to return to his spitfire and to the battle – the Battle of Britain.
A stone spiral wall surrounds and protects the sculpture. Enclosed within, a curved larch seat allows the visitor to sit and look up at the pilot and imagine the view he would have seen. Latticed steel panels emerge from the ground among the rubble, the rusted remains of conflict slowly being covered by beautiful planting.
The RAF Benevolent Fund has been providing support to veterans, serving personnel and their families for more than 100 years. This garden pays tribute to the help and protection the charity has continued to provide from the First World War to the present day.
We provide lifelong support to serving and ex-serving RAF personnel and their families. We'll consider any request for assistance, however big or small, providing a tailor-made approach to each individual situation.
Following its larger than life reveal at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2022, the RAF Benevolent Fund ‘Strongest Link’ Garden has been rebuilt for a larger site at Biggin Hill Airport, where it forms part of the popular Battle of Britain Museum history trail. The watchful airman will welcome visitors to the airport for many years to come and the garden is accessible to everyone who would like a peaceful moment of reflection during their visit.
.png)
This urban pocket park is designed as an inclusive place bringing people and plants together, and at the same time highlighting the ways in which green spaces provide personal and social health and wellbeing benefits.
The garden has a shady aspect and is bestowed with a sense of tranquility created by the planting in which textural foliage dominates and is punctuated with floral accents of colour. The hard landscaping is made from recycled materials. A pavilion structure and seating provide opportunities for dwelling and respite from the pressures of city life. Large planters add a sense of height and enclosure, creating an immersive and safe experience for visitors.
The garden embodies the work of the homeless charity St Mungo’s Putting Down Roots’ programme, which operates in public urban gardens as well as Cityscapes’ creative approach to shaping spaces and reusing materials.
St Mungo’s outreach teams go out each night to meet people who are homeless and to help them off the streets. With 17 outreach teams we are one of the largest providers of outreach services in the country.
Each night we offer a bed and support to more than 3,200 people across London, the south east and south west. We believe that people can – and do – recover from the issues that cause homelessness. We work to prevent homelessness and support people at every step of their recovery from homelessness.
Following the show, the garden was split and relocated across two sites - one in London Bridge City at Southwark Crown Court; the other in Guy’s Hospital campus at King’s College London, to bring greenery and respite outside the hospital entrance. Both sites will be maintained by Putting Down Roots clients for the enjoyment of the whole community.
"Public spaces are so good for our health and wellbeing and that’s become particularly apparent during the pandemic. We think it’s really important to show public gardens that are inclusive and available to everyone. We want people to see that they can be designed imaginatively whilst also being sustainable." - Darryl Moore, Designer
.jpg)
.webp)
Muscular Dystrophy UK Forest Bathing Garden is a sanctuary for those affected by a muscle wasting condition. It seeks to showcase how an immersive, yet accessible garden can offer a place of refuge to patients, their families, and clinicians at the time of diagnosis and beyond.
The design of the garden is inspired by the ancient Japanese practice of Shinrin-yoku, which means bathing in the forest atmosphere and reconnecting with nature through our senses. The garden seeks to awaken imagination and innate connection to nature by bridging the gap between us and the natural world.The planting is inspired by a birch grove, with more than 40 trees enveloping the garden and creating a forest-like atmosphere. At the core of the garden is a central hub with sculptural flint walls. It provides a sheltered space for people to meet and share their experiences outside the clinical environment.
The leading charity for over 60 muscle wasting and weakening conditions. For over 60 years, Muscular Dystrophy UK has been building a community of individuals living with muscle-wasting or weakening conditions, families and carers, scientists, health professionals, supporters, volunteers, and donors. Making advances that would have been unthinkable just ten years ago.
The garden has been relocated to The Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice in Glasgow. The hospice provides care and support for people who have been diagnosed with a life-limiting or life-threatening condition, including patients living with muscular dystrophy . The garden will provide a unique outdoor space for patients, their families, and the local community to experience the many benefits of an immersive woodland garden to physical and mental health and wellbeing.
.png)
%20(1).png)
In the BBC's centenary year, its flagship children’s programme, Blue Peter will be getting a new garden. The New Blue Peter Garden: Discover Soil invites everyone to discover soil and the vital role it plays in our ecosystems. The key message of the garden is "Don’t treat soil like dirt! It’s complex and alive - we couldn’t survive without it."
Taking you down, beneath the ground to see its subterranean workings and bringing soil up to eye level where you can see, touch, smell, and even hear, compost, this brightly planted, multi-layered garden will introduce both children and adults to the role soil plays in supporting life and how it can be preserved and used in our fight to reverse climate change.
The New Blue Peter Garden: Discover Soil, has become the Blue Peter TV garden, located at RHS Bridgewater near Manchester. All garden visitors are able to explore and discover its important messages about soil and the garden will be featured regularly on Blue Peter.Free entry to RHS Bridgewater is offered to Blue Peter Badge holders aged 6-15 with a valid badge ID card.
.png){kind=logo}
Chris Beardshaw, who is a lifelong supporter of the the RNLI, designed The RNLI Garden in celebration of the history and modernity of this multi-faceted charity, which has been saving lives at sea for almost 200 years. Its design marries style hints from the organisation’s Georgian origins with contemporary design cues to reflect the forward-looking spirit of the RNLI today.
Our volunteer lifeboat crews provide a 24-hour rescue service in the UK and Ireland, and our seasonal lifeguards look after people on busy beaches. Our Flood Rescue Team helps those affected by flooding.
RNLI crews and lifeguards have saved over 142,700 lives since 1824 but we’re more than a rescue service. We influence, supervise and educate people too. Our Community Safety teams explain the risks and share safety knowledge with anyone going out to sea or to the coast. And our international teams work with like-minded organisations to help tackle drowning in communities at risk all around the world.
Following its showcase at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2022, all plants from the garden were sold at a special event at RNLI Plymouth headquarters to raise funds for RNLI. Each plant is now being enjoyed in its new home across the UK. The urns have a new permanent home at the RNLI College in Poole. The pavilion will be added to the collection of beautiful sculptures at ‘Sculpture by the Lakes’, nestled in the Dorset countryside. The Purbeck stone is being incorporated into the Minehead Lifeboat Station renovation, due to be completed in December 2022, and the specially commissioned planters will be installed at RNLI headquarters as a permanent momento of their RHS Chelsea Flower Show experience.
Mind’s garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower show is designed to be the kind of place where people can connect, be themselves and open up about difficult emotions. Its aim was to inspire and spark conversations about mental health, breaking down the stigma, which sadly still surrounds it. The charity hopes the garden will also inspire us all to connect with those around us and seek help, highlighting the value of peer support for our mental health.
A series of sculptural walls flow down through the garden like a handful of petals tossed onto the ground. Rendered in clay and highly textural they are intended to be highly tactile and of the earth.
The garden is largely set amongst open woodland, with generous areas of meadow planting at the woodland edge, and marginals to enclose the pool. It is intended to be dramatic yet tranquil and beautiful.
Mind provides advice and support to empower anyone experiencing a mental health problem. They campaign to improve services, raise awareness and promote understanding.
The garden has been repurposed at Mind in Furness, Cumbria, a Mind centre that provides mental health support, including eco-therapy, for residents of Barrow in Furness and the surrounding area. Eco-therapy has been proven to improve mental health, boost self esteem, help people with mental health problems return to work, improve physical health and reduce social isolation. Plants from the show garden have also been donated to a further 11 Mind centres across England.
"I chose to design this garden for Mind because time in nature can transform how you feel. I want people to feel embraced by the garden. I want people to feel protected when they are in it."
Andy Sturgeon, Designer
This garden is all about wild plants with a predominantly green palette, cleverly designed to evoke a sense of being immersed in wilderness. By lifting the planting and intersecting a path through it, the plants are raised close to eye level. The height, form, texture and tonal values of the plants create a rich natural tapestry and the result is an experience of being engulfed by vegetation.
At the garden's core is a place to pause beneath a dappled canopy. Weathered timber lines the sides of the walkway, which is strewn with leaf litter. Weathered boulders resonate with age.
The Wilderness Foundation works to create meaningful interactions with nature for younger generations, so that they may experience a sense of wonder and awe in nature. For the next generation to be stewards of our world, it's vital they make a connection with it to develop a sense of value and care.
The garden has been relocated to Henry Maynard School in Walthamstow, London, giving students an opportunity to enjoy a slice of nature and inviting them to care for it into the future. It is used regularly as a teaching space, and is enjoyed by students and the wider school community every day.