'Make yourself right at home!'

With the RHS Hampton Court Flower Show coming up, it seems timely to tell a little about design we submitted for the RHS/Wyevale East 2011 student design and build award.  Similarly - like Southport - we were runners-up (one of two this time but sadly no cash prize to soften the blow!).  Nonetheless, it was still a great experience and good practice to understand the issues arising when putting together show garden submissions.  To be clear: we are not building this garden at RHS Hampton Court (although we would be delighted to build it if someone is so taken by the design they want it in their garden!).

The brief was to design an urban garden (6m x 4m) for a young couple in their early 30s with two children - (girl 8 and boy 5). The hard landscape materials were not to exceed £5,000 (eg paving, lawn, sand, cement, screws, paint, decking, aggregates, etc).

Andy and I produced a garden entitled 'Make yourself right at home!'.  This garden was an inviting, happy, colourful space for the whole family.  The planting was intentionally relaxed, naturalistic and sensory with particular regard for scent and taste.  For instance, sweet smelling flowers/foliage and edible plants were used throughout.  Some of these were supposed to fall across one another to create an informal atmosphere.  And for the busy mum and dad, it was comparatively low maintenance: reliable, thriving herbaceous perennials and shrubs were used throughout.

Example of textiles in the garden:
these are produced for external use

The garden's main feature was a rich, raised, rug of lawn into which bright cushions were incorporated (see right for an example of the colours which were going to be used).  This was intended to create an integrated lounging area within the grass - a sort of outside sofa.  

This floating bed was framed by a brilliantly coloured canvas sail above (again, vibrant pinks), held aloft by four posts, and surrounded by cool planting (lavenders, purples and softer pinks) flowing through the garden.  The area was intended to be a cosy place for the family to romp and relax!

A Sorbus hupenhensis (rowan) was used to provide vertical structure.  Its delicate leaves and mass of white berries are delightful during the summer.  The other main architectural plants, leading the eye around the garden, were majestic Cynara cardunculus (cardoon/artichoke thistle - see below) nestled between sensuous swathes of Molinia caerula subsp. acundinacea 'Karl Foerster' and Verbena bonariensis (verbena).

Verbena bonariensis

Dramatic spots of colour - picking up the colours in the cushions on the lawn and the overhanging sail - were provided by Centranthus ruber var. coccineus (red valerian) and Allium spaerocephalon, while the rest of the planting was softer pinks and purples.

Cynara cardunculus

The plants were predominantly mainstream culinary herbs or more unusual edible plants, such as the petals of pinks or rowan berries which can be used for jellies.