The garden has a tranquil woodland setting, aiming to reconnect children with nature, whilst also being a sensory and therapeutic garden. The garden was designed for children with various disabilities and in particular Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). It uses mature trees including a weeping beech and walnut specimen. The under planting is critical to the design, being multi-sensory – taste, smell and texture, as well as offering sound and movement from the wind; engaging the children to interact with the environment that surrounds them.
The entrance to the garden is an open woodland glade with a limited pallet of plants, leading into an enclosed woodland area with more complex, layered planting whilst introducing scent and colour. This offers the children secluded play spaces which peel off from the main path to relax and have fun in. Features such as an empowering spinning bolder, mushroom cave, wild grassy mounds, tree top nests, a hollowed out oak tree, living willow pods, a trampoline, tree swing and carved out boulder along with a flowing stream through the garden allow for different aspects of play.
Working on the show garden throughout the week before judging, my role was instrumental in laying out the planting, without any preconceived planting plan, in order to create a unified and cohesive space throughout the garden, linking the different areas whilst creating a very natural and relaxed feel to the planting, whilst drawing on my knowledge of how these plants grow in nature. When planting was completed, I then worked with a scrutinising horticultural eye through the trees and understorey planting, finessing the subjects to achieve their optimum best and worthy of Gold Medal status.
Following the show, the garden will be reimagined at the Caudwell International Children’s Centre at Keele University, which provides multi-disciplinary support for children with developmental disorders.
