“Where are the weeds?” You might well ask. RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2023 was awash with them and much of the talk revolved around their appearance as star plants. This year, you’d be hard pressed to hear the word ‘weed’ and you’ll certainly need to look them out. Or is it more that the rebranding of weeds is complete, and we can breathe easy about what’s in our gardens? But remember the backlash at the time and the sense of confusion about how rewilding and brownfield sites related to gardens. Perhaps all we really want is a space to nurture.
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As has been noted, Chelsea’s show gardens really were all gardens (as opposed to landscapes) this year with repeated themes of trees, winding paths, changing levels, flowing water and places to sit. The formality in gardens is gone and we have learnt so much about how our gardens can benefit our health, state of mind, fauna and flora, and communities.
Permaculture? – in the refined quarters of Chelsea!?
There’s also Chelsea’ Sustainability Audit that makes designers consider in even more detail every built and planted decision.
So, what might be worth focusing on this year, prompted by a new generation of designers, is the practice of permaculture. What – in the refined quarters of Chelsea!? Putting aside any criticism of the movement’s associations with counterculture and accusations of a lack of measurable results when it comes to large scale food production, some of the movements key premises are gaining sway in how we now design our gardens.
The range and number of trees seen at the show was perhaps greater than ever
One premise in particular is permaculture’s call to creatively use and respond to available resources. Or permaculture founder Bill Mollison’s oft-quoted ‘You don’t have a snail problem, you have a duck deficiency’ – in other words: problems aren’t challenges to eliminate but opportunities to work with. How did this play out at Chelsea?
Problems solved in gardens at this year's show
Climate uncertainty and extremes
Tom Massey and Je Ahn’s The WaterAid Garden and Naomi Slade and Ed Barsley’s Flood Re: The Flood Resilient Garden integrated water management creatively. By sculpting the landscape, water could be directed to not cause a problem while also creating opportunities for appropriate damp or dry loving plants. The Terrence Higgins Trust Bridge to 2030 Garden, designed by Matthew Childs, similarly crafted planting opportunities from low-lying areas of water to tiny, free-draining crevices.
Loss of biodiversity
Within each garden there is now a greater mingling of species allowing for diversity of habitat, nectar sources and edible options. The range and number of trees seen at the show was perhaps greater than ever. As our native trees face pressure from climate, pests and disease, there is the opportunity for our gardens to use a range of options that offer resilience and diversity. From the Chinese fringe tree Chionanthus retusus on the RHS No Adults Allowed garden to pride of India, Koelreuteria paniculata, on the Terrence Higgins Trust Bridge to 2030 Garden to the black birch, Betula nigra on the National Autistic Society Garden, these trees have both aesthetic and resilience qualities.
Using materials wisely and minimising waste
Miria Harris’s The Stoke Association Garden used crushed old concrete blocks to form the base of her pathways, while what looked like black corrugated metal fencing was in fact created from compressed hemp and gave the boundary a softer, warm texture. In the Balcony and Container Gardens, Thomas Clarke's design for Children with Cancer UK testing this opportunity to the full. More than 80 per cent of the materials used were salvaged and repurposed from old farm buildings. The floor tiles celebrated the inclusion of wood chips. Taken from a fallen ash tree, other parts of the tree were used to create the seating and cantilevered pergola, while Tom combined wood chippings into his tile mix and applied a resin to create hard-wearing, visually textured tiles.
How to use and value limited space
Ula Maria’s garden for Muscular Dystrophy UK planted trees to the very margins of her show garden footprint to give that forested look and appeal, multi-stemmed with fine foliage allow for a more open canopy. This allowed for some gorgeous dappled light on a number of gardens including The NGS Garden, Muscular Dystrophy UK and the Burma Skincare Initiative Spirit of Partnership Garden, with opportunities for sitting in cool shade on hot summer days.
Tsuyako’s evolving design allowed for greater sustainability, balance and utility.
With light able to filter through, there are opportunities for layered planting. Below the trees, there was more usage of shrubs, many with edible or medicinal qualities, such as the bog myrtle Myrica gale in The National Autistic Society Garden, or for their permanence of shape within the perennials, such as the relaxed-looking Lonicera nitida ‘Baggeson’s Gold’ on The Stoke Association Garden.
Below the mid layer were the perennials and then plenty of ground cover planting to keep soil protected, such as Epimedium ‘Spine Tingler’ in the National Garden Scheme Garden. Principles of forest gardening were key to The Pulp Friction Growing Skills Garden in the All About Plants category, with each layer having an edible or useful quality, such as the medlar, filbert, calendula and alpine strawberry – plus a screen of beans.
And finally, Tsuyako Asada’s silver gilt-winning design for Tomie’s Cuisine the Nobonsai balcony garden. Here very limited space was filled with clever ideas from the simple dug-hole, pot-topped composter to the planted gutter that allowed for water to filter through to a water tank. Layered edimentals included fig, hazel, blueberry, citrus, wild strawberry and herbs, while perfectly placed bonsai and potted plants on shelves symbolised the small piece of nature she’d captured on the balcony. Perhaps the winning point here was her consideration of how the garden will evolve over the next three years, so, while most Chelsea gardens are fixed very much on the moment, Tsuyako’s evolving design allowed for greater sustainability, balance and utility.
The emphasis increasingly needs to be on problem solving if we are to sustain our lives
You don’t have to follow permaculture to be aware of a more widespread and hopeful sense of a biophilic approach to design but the emphasis increasingly needs to be on problem solving if we are to sustain our lives going forward. The link to Robert Myers’ St James’s Piccadilly garden – Imagine the World to be Different – feels apt. With its highlighting of the church’s historic link to freethinkers such as influential physicist Isaac Newton, poet William Blake and 18th-century abolitionist Quobna Ottobah Cugoano, perhaps it isn’t too counterculture anymore to be viewing Chelsea through the principles of permaculture.
