This year’s display gardens at the RHS Flower Show in Tatton Park are set to inspire urban gardeners, tackling issues of urban grey spaces, climate change and the very topical subject of flooding head-on.
This year’s category of ‘Future Spaces’ has seen some impressive and environmentally-sensitive designs submitted. The ‘2101’ garden designed by Warnes-Mcgarr is designed to be at home with increasing temperatures due to climate change. It will contain a mixture of drought-tolerant plants inspired by Mexican and South American landscapes, as well as an aquaponics system.
In recent years the UK has been beset by some of the worst flooding in its history, and a design by John Everiss is tackling the issue head-on with his Slow the Flow Garden. It will contain a number of strategies every gardener can use to capture and slow torrential rain down, helping to alleviate the effects of flash flooding.
This year’s main supporter of the RHS Flower Show Tatton Park, Bruntwood, will be building a garden experiment that will be actively monitored throughout the show, both for the way the plants behave in the design as well as how people react to it. The design, titled ‘The Bruntwood Experiment,’ features tough, resilient plants that thrive in complex and often neglected urban spaces. The data collected on the garden and its visitors will inform the replanting of a garden at Bruntwood’s Alderley Park campus.
Highlighting the health benefits of gardening, and even just being amongst plants, are the ‘Remember Me‘ and ‘Relaxation Meditation‘ gardens. The ‘Remember Me’ garden by Jane Bingham and Penny Hearn will feature dementia-friendly ideas, with many of plants in the design popular in the 60s and 70s, evoking childhood memories and creating a comforting space for sufferers of the disease. Paul Morris’ ‘Relaxation Meditation’ will provide a relaxing space for meditation, featuring herbs like chamomile, mint and sage.
Ever the champion of greening urban spaces, the RHS is also calling on communities to get involved with their Bus Stop Boulevard display. The 25m long strip is hoping to make dreary waits for busses a thing of the past by featuring six planted-up bus shelters, with designs created by local community groups. Any community group is invited to submit designs, but hurry! Submissions close on 11 May 2017. See the Bus Stop Boulevard website for more details.
The show is on from July 19 – 23, 2017. Visit the RHS Flower Show Tatton Park website for more information.