RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2008
Gold Medal & Best Courtyard Garden

I was asked by Dorset Cereals in the autumn of 2007 if I would like to design a garden on their behalf for the Chelsea Flower Show the following May. The garden was intended to be a showcase for a 2008 national campaign, sponsored by Dorset Cereals, called ‘Edible Playgrounds’ (www.edibleplaygrounds.co.uk).

I liked the specific brief: to create a garden that would inspire and encourage schools to develop small, productive plots, where children could learn about and experience the thrill of growing their own food. The design was intended to show how a small corner of a typical Dorset school playground could be adapted to form an attractive and practical garden, where, by sowing, weeding, watering, composting, harvesting and cooking what they had grown, children might develop a deeper understanding of their relationship with their environment.

The design was accepted by the RHS and, with the expert project management of Mandy Cooper from Positive PR, a large number of people were then asked to contribute their expertise. Marshall James Garden Development of Beaminster (01308 863398) built the garden with their customary skill and great attention to detail; it was not a straightforward build – the two metre high flint wall had to be built off a line of steel girders spiked into the ground because no excavations were permitted in that part of the Chelsea Hospital site. The Gardens Group at Sherborne Castle Gardens were responsible for growing all the plants; and David Woodford generously allowed us to lift a late-flowering, 30 year old apple tree from his orchard in Chalmington, which he assured us would be in flower during Chelsea week (and it was as good as his word!). In addition, Guy Furner of Woodland Products made up the specially commissioned green oak raised beds, the trellis work to screen the rainwater-collecting tanks, the compost bin with perspex front and the tree seat with its inscription: Sow it, grow it, eat it! In the end, I think we could genuinely say that we were taking more than a bit of Dorset to Chelsea.

Despite the inevitable heart-stopping moments when the best laid plans go awry, the garden was built and planted on schedule and we were naturally really excited when it won not only a Gold Medal, but also the award for the Best Courtyard Garden.

It was a real pleasure seeing the warmth of the reaction to the garden from visitors to the Show. Growing your own fruit and vegetables is clearly highly topical. In particular, the little ‘cress heads’ in egg shells evoked a huge response from young and old alike. It was a great thrill for the children at Cerne Abbas First School, who had decorated and grown them, when Joe Swift homed in on them during the coverage on the BBC!

After the Show, the garden was generously donated by Dorset Cereals to St.Mary’s Primary School in Bridport, where it was re-erected by the Direct Works team from Dorset County Council.

More images of the Chelsea garden >

RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2008
Gold Medal & Best In Show

This was another garden sponsored by Dorset Cereals, which followed on just 6 weeks after Chelsea, but was much bigger at 150 sq.m. as opposed to just 20 sq.m. at Chelsea. The theme was the same: ‘The Edible Playground’, but this time I could create a garden that the public could walk through, and there was room to demonstrate my ideas for a fully-fledged working school garden. (In fact, after the show – and again thanks to the generosity of Dorset Cereals in donating it – the garden was completely dismantled and then reinstalled in its entirety at Holy Trinity Primary School in Weymouth.) The garden was beautifully constructed by Goddard Landscapes of Okeford Fitzpaine in Dorset (www.goddardlandscapes.co.uk). The wide range of edible plants, from thornless blackberries to ‘Pink Passion’ chard were again nearly all grown by the Gardens Group, and the unusual boundary ‘hedge’ of wheat, oats and barley was grown by Pearce Seeds of Sherborne. The green oak shed with its sedum roof and verandah (to shelter children from the rain or too much sun) was made by Poulton Portables of Shaftesbury. Once again it could truly be described as a garden from Dorset.

We were all thrilled when the garden won a Gold Medal and even more so when the ‘Edible Playground Garden’ was awarded the ‘Tudor Rose’, the award for ‘Best Garden in Show’.

My particular pleasure was in speaking to so many teachers, who came to Hampton Court Flower Show and said that they were inspired by the garden to go back and try to create similar effects in their own school gardens.

The garden attracted a great deal of coverage from the BBC.

More images of the Hampton Court garden >