Bottom Up

I recall seeing several Chelsea show gardens in past years that were close-copies of small pieces of real landscape. This raised the question in many people’s minds about what ‘garden design’ actually is. Is simply recreating a piece of landscape, as a Chelsea show garden, really 'garden design’? Examples included different small industrial buildings in neglected but nostalgic condition, with overgrown yards filled with decaying bric-a-brac.

A Chelsea show garden inspired by real industrial decay

There was even a canal lock, with rotting lock gates, overgrown walls and banks. I marvelled at the work required to create it – it was superb in terms of attention to detail and I can easily see why the public loved it. The planting was authentic too – typical planting that can be found on any canal-side embankment and growing out of lock walls. Although these ‘show-gardens’ were interesting examples of verisimilitude reflecting our industrial heritage, are they ‘garden design’? I’ll leave that to the reader to decide. Setting aside the issue of what ‘design’ is, more importantly for me was these gardens missed the opportunity to reinstate ‘lost nature’ – ie the ecology that once existed before industrialisation. They were not used to highlight the issue of lost biodiversity or what rewilding really means. It is not simply letting nature take its course.

Chelsea show garden inspired by a canal lock

The fact is our UK landscape is now almost entirely manmade. If garden designers do want to reproduce examples of this ‘naturalistic landscape’, perhaps they should do so with added ‘health warnings’, as part of addressing the impact of climate change. Perhaps they should offer not just a ‘plants list’ but a ‘plants lost’. They may also want to include problematic invasive species that now dominate many areas. Creating bucolic scenes feels great, but does not mean that, ‘everything in the garden is rosy’!

Naturalistic designs and planting seen everywhere at Chelsea 2023

Naturalistic planting dominated the Chelsea Flower Show gardens this year, I presume in response to concerns over climate change. This is reflected by a growing number of garden designers who are adjusting their design ideas and plant palettes to reflect this enormous challenge / existential threat to our world. This approach has affected plant choices and also the way the gardens were actually planted, with more space between plants allowing them to breath. The plants felt slightly less ‘orchestrated’. It was therefore possible to appreciate the plants themselves and as a result, many gardens had certain meadow-like qualities, which I enjoyed.

It is a sad statistic however, that the UK has apparently lost over 97% of its real meadows due to intensive farming, industrialisation and meeting the needs of population growth. Meadows were often areas of shared or ‘’common ground’ not used for arable purposes, because the soil was often unsuitable. Rather, they were left for grazing purposes and for making hay. But for nature itself, they were powerhouses of biodiversity, supporting a vast array of wildlife and were an important part of the food-chain and web-of-life. The loss of our meadows has been referred to by experts as a ‘plant and biodiversity apocalypse’. So it is really encouraging to find more and more meadows planted in formal garden settings up and down the land, from RHS Wisley in Surrey, to Cambo Gardens in Fife and Gordons Castle in Aberdeenshire, where there are large areas of wildflowers set amongst the vegetable and fruit-growing beds. There is even an area of meadow in the Balmoral Castle kitchen garden. The hope is that seeing these meadows will encourage us all to plant some ourselves.

Gordons castle, Aberdeenshire - wildflower meadow

It is fantastic to see peoples’ reaction to these meadows, especially when they are sown on a large scale such as at Gordons castle in Aberdeenshire. The typical first response is simply to gasp in wonder. This is understandable. A meadow in full flower is a beautiful thing. Of course it is true that traditional ‘commons’ were not as fecund as these modern ‘designed’ meadows, with their density of wildflowers. Just stand beside a modern meadow for a few minutes and the benefits to birds, bees, butterflies, hoverflies, moths and countless other insects quickly becomes obvious. And they can benefit the soil too.

RHS Hyde Hall - buttercup meadow

Seeing the benefits to the environment of this trend towards naturalistic planting is a great reminder that the adjustments required to offset climate change can be beautiful too. In terms of statistics, there are millions of gardens and gardeners throughout the UK, so if we all make our own small changes to benefit local biodiversity, collectively this can add up to a big effect. This is change from the ‘bottom up”.

View from Macduff, Aberdeenshire towards Banff, seen across a meadow of cornflowers and poppies.

The above Text and all Photographs are copyright of Wincenty (Wicek) Sosna. Please contact SeeHow for permission to reproduce in any way, in part or as the complete text.