Free Garden Design Consultations At The Chelsea Flower Show
For visitors to the Chelsea Flower Show who have been inspired by the wealth
of exciting garden designs and are wondering how to get started on their own garden,
The Society of Garden Designers (SGD) has the answer.
This year the SGD stand at Chelsea (Stand No. PW26) will be dedicated
to helping the public realise their dream garden. The SGD stand provides Show visitors
with a unique opportunity to meet and talk to a wide range of experienced, practising
garden designers from all over the UK. More than 40 different garden designers will
be on hand throughout the week and the SGD will be running a daily programme of
design events for show visitors on its stand. These include:
FREE Garden Design Clinics
For anyone who is planning on re-designing their garden and is looking for expert
advice from an experienced garden designer, the SGD will be offering a limited number
of free garden design clinics. Allocated on a first-come-first-serve basis, these
20 minute, one‐to‐one, consultations will be running throughout each day of the
show; designers will able to show visitors how they can make the most of their outdoor
space. Clinics need to be booked in advance from the SGD stand.
Designer Question Time
Award-wining garden designers Andy Sturgeon, Thomas Hoblyn and Cleve West are just
three of the designers who will be hosting daily question and answer sessions from
the SGD stand during the show. From the heart of Chelsea’s Main Avenue, visitors
can learn how world-famous Chelsea Show Gardens are turned from concept to creation,
how designers select and design with plants, water and landscape materials and how
to work with a garden designer.
Members of the Society of Garden Designers at Chelsea 2010
Once again, there will be a number of leading SGD garden designers participating
in the show and the SGD is hoping to capitalise on previous achievements: in the
last two years, SGD members have received a total of 23 Medals including eight Gold
Medals, seven Silver-Gilt Medals, five Silver Medals and three Bronze Medals.
Registered members of the SGD (MSGD) participating at Chelsea include the renowned
landscape designer, author and TV presenter Andy Sturgeon (MSGD)
who makes a welcome return to Chelsea this year with the Daily Telegraph Show Garden.
Andy has won numerous awards, including four consecutive gold medals at the Chelsea
Flower Show from 2005 to 2008. Andy’s garden started from the idea that life takes
you down many different paths and he has designed his garden using a series of metal
screens that block off and open up vistas as you pass through the garden.
This year, Thomas Hoblyn (MSGD) is putting on his first full-sized
show garden at Chelsea. The Foreign & Colonial Investments’ garden celebrates
the C18th novel Candide ou l’optimisme by Voltaire. The field-like layout of the
garden is suggestive of the Turkish smallholding where the novel was set and the
planting and pools of water in the design add an appropriate Mediterranean flavour.
This style of garden could easily be found in the warmer parts of the UK and demonstrates
new ways with exotic plants, now possible in a changing climate.
Following on from his silver-medal winning garden last year, Nicholas Dexter
(MSGD) will be unveiling his Naturally Fashionable Garden for Brand
Alley at Chelsea this year. The garden, which is one of the Urban Gardens at the
Show, is inspired by the avant-garde and pioneering work of textile designer Sonia
Delaunay. Her block coloured textile designs were a great influence for the garden
layout which combines strong geometry with natural planting.
Jason Lock (MSGD) and Chris Deakin (MSGD) of Deakin
Lock will be working with John Woods Nurseries to create a small, contemporary garden
that will be included in the National Garden Centre at Capel Manor College. All
elements of the garden have been designed to be transportable and the garden will
be transferred in June to join the series of ‘Show Gardens’ set up by Capel Manor,
with support of the RHS, for the public to enjoy.