Chelsea Flower Show 2019 Artisan And Space To Grow Gardens
About the Artisan and Space To Grow Gardens at the 2019 Chelsea Flower Show
Held for five days every May in central London, the RHS Chelsea Flower Show is the most famous flower and landscape show in the United Kingdom and perhaps in the world. The show features Show Gardens, smaller Artisan and Space To Grow or Urban Gardens, a Pavilion with floral and plant displays, and hundreds of exhibitors. I finally had a chance to visit the show in 2019.
In planning for a year or two, the gardens are installed on site in an approximately two week time period. The gardens are judged on a set of criteria as well as how well the actual garden matches the submitted design. Gardens are awarded a gold, silver, or bronze medal depending on how well they scored. Best in category and best construction awards are also handed out. BBC televises several hours of programming about the show during the week it is on and offers an opportunity for the public to vote for their favourites.
Leaflets about the garden and the plants used are available at most of the gardens and someone from the design team is on site to answer any questions you may have.
For a overall guide to the Chelsea Flower Show with information about its history, what to expect at the show, and how to visit, read my post Guide to the Chelsea Flower Show. The remainder of this post highlights the Artisan and Space To Grow Gardens from the 2019 show.
Artisan Gardens
Artisan Gardens are similar to Show Gardens but are set in smaller spaces. There were 6 Artisan Gardens at the 2019 RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
The Donkey Sanctuary: Donkeys Matter Garden
Sponsored by the Donkey Sanctuary the silver medal Donkeys Matter Garden featured a terraced garden of silver and purple drought-tolerant plants with a shelter at the back. The path through the garden represented the vital journeys donkeys (the ultimate in sustainable transport) carry out on behalf of some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable communities.
The Donkeys Matter Garden won the People’s Choice Best Artisan Garden. I can understand why. It was also one of my favourite gardens at the show.
Green Switch Gardens
Gold medal Green Switch Garden represented the space we inhabit when we “switch off” from the stresses of contemporary urban life. The garden featured a two-storey structure with a sedum-covered roof. The upper level was a tea room with glass walls and below was a parking space. A similar glass-wall structure at the other end of the garden housed a shower room. In between lay a Japanese-style garden.
Tea house and parking space
Walker’s Forgotten Quarry Garden
Silver medal Walker’s Forgotten Quarry Garden featured rusting industrial elements with nature reclaiming the space around them.
Other Artisan Gardens
I did not get photographs of the three other artisan gardens. The silver medal Miles Stone: The Kingston Maurward Garden featured a purple planting scheme around curved stone walls and a central seating area. The gold medal The High Maintenance Garden for Motor Neurone Disease Association featured a vintage car sitting in a wood garage in an untended garden slowly reclaimed by nature. The garden reflected the limitations persons with motor neurone disease have in maintaining gardens. The gold medal Family Monsters Garden featured a relaxed border of birch trees and woodland-inspired planting around a central pool. The Family Monsters Garden won the Best Artisan Garden award.
Space To Grow Gardens
Space To Grow Gardens are specifically designed for smaller spaces. Some years similar gardens have been called Urban Gardens. There were 9 Space To Grow Gardens at the 2019 RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
The only Space To Grow garden I didn’t capture in photographs was the silver medal Harmonious Garden of Life.The simple but thoughtful garden was created to be environmentally sustainable. Photos and information about the remaining 8 Space To Grow Gardens follow.
The Facebook Garden: Beyond The Screen
Gold medal The Facebook Garden: Beyond the Screen Garden was designed to celebrate the positive impact of spending meaningful time on social media and how this enriches our lives in the real world. (Yes, Facebook was the sponsor.) It was a coastal-themed garden using the connectivity of water and the ocean to represent the interconnectivity between our online and offline lives. The garden won the Best Space to Grow Garden award and the Best Construction Award for Artisan/Space to Grow Garden.
The Roots in Finland Kyrö Garden
The silver medal Roots In Finland Kyrö Garden, designed for an urban garden in the centre of Helsinki city, offered spaces to sit and relax with plantings that echoed the countryside and landscape of rural Finland.
Kampo no Niwa Garden
The gold medal Kampo no Niwa Garden was designed for a practitioner of Kampo, a system of Japanese herbal medicine. The garden celebrates the route to health and happiness through plants. It was inspired by the geology of Hokkaido, the most northerly prefecture of Japan and home to the designers.
The Montessori Centenary Children’s Garden
Gold medal The Montessori Centenary Children’s Garden was a stimulating and child-centered space with two greenhouses.
Viking Cruises: The Art of Viking Garden
The gold medal Viking Cruises: The Art of Viking Garden was a multi-layered wetland habitat with birches, winding streams, and a dominant colour of green.
The Silent Pool Gin Garden
Silver medal The Silent Pool Gin Garden featured many of the botanicals used in the making of gin, steps down into an inner space, and semi-transparent teal botanical water wall. Silent Pool, sponsor of the garden, is a distiller based in Surrey that bottles its gin in distinctive aqua green and copper-coloured bottles.
Distinctive Silent Pool gin bottles in a store window (this was not at the Chelsea Flower Show)The Manchester Garden
Silver medal The Manchester Garden reflected a green space in the heart of an industrialized landscape with plants flowing around an undulating white sculpture. The garden honoured sustainability through a theme of planting for managing water through sustainable drainage systems, trees chosen for resilience, and using plants to clean and improve urban soil.
The CAMFED Garden: Giving Girls In Africa A Space To Grow
The gold medal CAMFED Garden: Giving Girls In Africa A Space To Grow captured the spirit of Africa. It featured edible crops, vital to helping children to thrive, with a rural Zimbabwean classroom at its heart. The garden drew attention to the urgent need to empower and educate young women in some of the world’s poorest communities most affected by climate change. Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED) helps girls in rural Africa stay in education and develop thriving agricultural businesses, creates jobs, and delivers prosperity. Giving Girls In Africa A Space To Grow won the People’s Choice for Best Space To Grow Garden.
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Appreciated Walker’s Forgotten Quarry Garden. Comes with a life lesson about how nature regenerates itself while that which is man made doesn’t.
Ken, A few of the gardens had “lessons” of sorts, many about sustainability.