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Small Gardens
Chic Gardens
The smaller and courtyard gardens at Chelsea in 2001 were some of the most innovative and successful. This year the RHS has expanded entry to include would-be garden designers as well as colleges and RHS Affiliated Societies.
There were three categories of smaller gardens - Courtyard, City and Chic Gardens. Each category had a different brief are around 4.5m x 4.5m.
Understanding
(Gold, Best Chic Garden) Tamsin Partridge designed a garden that led the visitor o a circular path, crossed with zig-zag rubber tyre treads, beyond the bulky entrance walls of metal, stone and opaque glass to a tranquil space behind.
Entrance planting of foliage planting and grasses was given a floral boost with R. 'Goldfinch', alliums and Achillea 'Moonshine'. Within the garden, planting became denser and more lush, with the emphasis still on foliage. Typically purple leaved cannas, phormiums and bronze grasses were used.
Inside the garden the planting was green and white, a reflecting the tranquillity of the internal space.
Kelly's Creek
(Gold) Alison Wear Associates brought a new garden style this year. A low-maintenance, low water garden that used an Australian theme but brought plants from arid climates all over the globe.
Tall stakes painted in Aboriginal style and red and orange chips brought the harsh Australian outback to mind. A pair of eucalypts sealed it. Underneath were New Zealand plants (phormiums, corokia, Pseudopanax lessonii, even bidibids - Acaeca), as well as Mediterranean, Afircan and American natives.
The Forgotten Future
(Silver-Gilt) This modern roof space used reinforcing steel to create dramatic screens and divide a small space without closing it in. The garden was set in a future time, and the house and surroundings have decayed. Many of the materials were recycled, creating innovative containers and retaining walls.
Planting was of structural and foliage plants, each carefully chosen for its form and colour. Centre stage going to a New Zealand Mulhenbecia axillaris in a metal container. Phormiums, cordylines, tree ferns, fatsias and hostas fitted easily into this first time Show garden by designer Michelle Brown.
New Zealanders would have been intrigued to see so many of our native plants in this Chelsea garden.
The Great North Garden
(Silver-Gilt) A very modern garden with Perspex screens and a circular theme, centring on a bubble fountain. Pebble lights outlined the circle, mirrored spheres and even boules to reinforce the 'circular' theme.
Subtropical-style plantings of tree ferns and other plants sold this as an up-to-the-minute garden from Kent Design/Landscape Management Services.
A Moveable, Modular Garden
(Silver-Gilt) Grey boxes stacked and assembled created a striking garden on a number of levels. Leaving a gardens is something any passionate gardener finds a tough call. This garden from designer Natalie Charles of Merrist Wood College had the ideal solution - simply take it with you.
Hard outlines were softened with lush planting, the emphasis on foliage (heuchera, hosta, Carex comans, ferns, cordylines, fatsia, fargesia and hedera) but with touches of flower colour. The colour theme was purple with splashes of orange geums, and a touch of white from hosta flowers.
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Understanding
Best Chic Garden, Gold
A zig-zag path led into the garden
Kelly's Creek
Mulhenbecia axillaris in Forgotten Future
The Great North Garden
A Moveable, Modular Garden
Bold foliage effects | |
