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Garden name

RBC New Wild Garden

Designer

Nigel Dunnett

Awards

Silver-Gilt Flora

Video tour of garden

Description of garden

Nigel Dunnett indulged his twin loves of the work of Victorian horticulturalist, William Robinson, and for the Arts & Crafts movement, to create this contemporary, sustainable rain garden.

Rain gardens are popular ways to make the most of water in the United States, but they are not so well known in the UK. Rain is captured on buildings (in this case a converted shipping container with a green roof) and then flows through garden beds before being allowed to drain away into the soil. This reduces the amount of run-off and therefore flash- flooding that might occur especially in urban areas.

Sustainability is the main function of this garden, but in the spirit of the Arts & Crafts movement, the form of something must follow from its function, so whilst this garden is recycling water, it must also be attractive.

A visionary advocate of sustainable gardening, Robinson popularised the use of perennials and nature conservation. For this garden Nigel Dunnett has used perennial planting and modern recycled and reclaimed materials throughout the garden in the dry stone wall, the office building and bug hotel.

Photo

RBC New Wild Garden

Inspiration / influences

The garden is inspired by the two big themes from gardening over the last 100 years, Wild Gardening and the Arts & Crafts movement, such as Sissinghurst and Hidcote.

List of plants planned to feature in the garden

Sedum reflexum - reflexed stonecrop

Leucanthemum vulgare - Ox-eye Daisy

Sesleria caerulea - blue moor-grass

Salvia nemorosa - Balkan clary

Geum 'Princess Juliana'

Verbascum phoeniceum 'Violetta'

Euphorbia grifithii 'Fireglow'

Euphorbia schillingii - Schilling spurge

Betula pendula 'Dalecarlica'

Also

Nigel Dunnett is Reader in Urban Horticulture and Director of the Green Roof Centre, University of Sheffield. He writes books, academic papers and articles for newspapers, and says "...doing a garden at Chelsea is, I think, a great way of showing how all these ideas really work. And doing it in a designed garden, in a way which I hope is exciting and looks fantastic, I think is just about the best way you can communicate it... to show that... these things can be done by virtually anybody..."

Previously at Chelsea, Nigel won a 2009 Silver-gilt for the Future Nature garden which he made with Adrian Hallam and Chris Arrowsmith.

Links

List of 2011 show gardens - Chelsea Flower Show

Chelsea Flower Show photographs

TV schedule - Chelsea Flower Show

List of 2011 show gardens - Chelsea Flower Show

Archive: Meet the 2010 garden designers