Chelsea Flower Show 2022 – Ideas For Your Garden

The world’s greatest flower show returned in style last month after a two year hiatus.  And the Chelsea Flower Show 2022 did not disappoint.  Teeming with ideas and inspiration for every type of gardener, there was something for everyone to enjoy.

Looking back at some of the show’s most popular standout themes, we’ve collated the easiest and most inspiring ideas for your garden in this week’s blog.

  • 'The Space Within' garden designed by Michelle Brown

    chelsea flower show garden ideas from the space within garden

Gardening for health and wellbeing

Gardeners have long proclaimed the benefits all that weeding, pruning and planting has on both their mental and physical health.  In fact, there’s a growing body of research to support the positive benefits of gardening and green spaces, with increasing evidence proving the many virtues of exposure to plants and green space.

And gardening for health and wellbeing was a strong theme at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show, which was a mecca of ideas for your own garden.

‘The Space Within’ garden designed by Michelle Brown showcased just how easy it can be to create a relaxing and meditative outdoor space in a relatively small garden.  Angular chestnut wooden structures, inviting seating and stylish paving intertwined with dramatic planting choices to create the ideal place to relax and unwind.

Similarly, Jamie Butterworth’s ‘Securing Tomorrow’ garden for the charity Place2Be was all about creating a tranquil space away from the everyday hustle and bustle.  Simple hard landscaping materials of sandstone, oak and metal, as well as a limited palette of green and the gentle flow of running water, meant this garden encapsulated the ultimate tranquil retreat.

  • 'Boodles Travel Garden' designed by Thomas Hoblyn

    chelsea flower show garden ideas from the boodles travel garden

Hard landscaping

The ‘Boodles Travel Garden’ by Thomas Hoblyn was just one show garden that used hard landscaping and paving to great effect.  Its striking sandstone pathway snaked through the luscious planting, which drew inspiration from all four corners of the globe.

This clever paving really created a sense of journey and could easily be recreated in your own garden.  For a more symmetrical look, hard borders with strong lines and structured planting will provide a more formal feel.

Other ideas for your garden could be found in Ruth Willmott’s Morris & Co. show garden (see below), which featured strong, angular corners and a beautiful rill water feature running the length of the design.

It’s worth remembering that hard landscaping such as paving, copings, lawn edging or bollards should be both attractive and functional.  Stone elements in particular are ideal for providing functional finishing touches.  So keep this in mind when you start planning any garden makeover.

  • Rewilding at Chelsea Flower Show encouraged pollinators

    chelsea flower show garden ideas supporting our bees

Mini ecosystem in your garden

One of the strongest trends at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show was that of rewilding.  It was hard to find a show garden at the event that didn’t embrace this relaxed, informal aesthetic.

Rewilding has become enormously popular over the past few years and Chelsea’s nod in this new direction shows it’s here to stay.

Balancing and restoring a natural environment to its original, uncultivated state isn’t for the faint-hearted. It can take years of planning and nurture to allow nature to take over and ‘rewild’.

However, many garden designers at Chelsea showed us was how easy it is to create your very own mini ecosystem yourself at home.  Incorporating native plants and flowers into a garden will naturally attract wildlife and encourage all-important pollinators.

The BBC’s ‘Our Green Planet’ and the RHS teemed up at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show to design the wonderful ‘Bee Garden‘.  Buzzing with take home ideas, this garden was a hive of activity at the show.  Inspiration from this garden can be found in this handy list of ‘plants for pollinators‘ by the RHS.

Water features are also one of the best ways to help encourage native wildlife into your garden.  A well-maintained pond or pool surround will provide fresh drinking and bathing water for birds as well as shelter for a myriad of amphibian species.

  • 'Hands Off Mangrove' show garden designed by Grow2Know

    chelsea flower show garden ideas from the hands off mangrove garden

Recycling and your garden

Recycling or reusing existing materials was another strong theme at this year’s show.  None more so than in the ‘Hands Off Mangrove’ show garden by Grow2Know, designed by Danny Clarke and Tayshen Hayden-Smith.

Tayshen was chosen as one of Haddonstone’s top 10 young garden designers in 2020 as part of our ‘Ones To Watch‘ and so it was great to see Tayshen’s design at this year’s show.

Upcycled, rusted steel was used in this garden to create its strong, central structural form.  Underfoot, recycled crushed building aggregate was used to create a textural pathway with a nod to sustainable landscaping.

The garden was completed with upcycled cooking pots that were artfully transformed into planters for growing tomatoes and chillis.

Recycling is a great way to enhance your garden inexpensively.  When your Haddonstone order arrives it will most likely be delivered on a wooden pallet and we’ve collated a few easy ways for upcycling them safely and in the most environmentally-friendly ways.

  • The 'RNLI Garden' designed by Chris Beardshaw

    chelsea flower show garden ideas from the RNLI garden

Stone can transform your garden

Here at Haddonstone, we’ve known for years how stone can transform any outside space.  So it was wonderful to see so many new and established garden designers incorporating stonework into their designs this year.  From subtle stone elements that gently enhanced a garden, to momentous, unmissable stone blocks, it was a material that helped many of the medal winners steal the show.

Elegant stone pathways featured in many gardens this year.  Chelsea regular Chris Beardshaw secured his ninth gold medal with his charitable collaboration with the RNLI.  Featuring British Purbeck stone, Beardshaw cleverly incorporated paving and pitchers into his design to create a textural path running within the luscious borders.

Beardshaw also included a classically inspired pavilion with traditional columns within his garden, which although made of oak rather than stone, was an elegant addition and displayed how impactful garden structures like this can be.

Other gardens incorporating stone included the John Everiss’ RAF Benevolent Fund garden (below left) with its stone spiral walls encircling a young pilot sculpture, and portland stone paving

Elsewhere Ruth Willmott’s Morris & Co. show garden (below centre) featured hand-made clay tiles and riven buff Yorkstone paving made from upcycled off-cuts. 

The stone used in Andy Sturgeon’s Mind garden displayed a more natural feel, avoiding straight lines and using textured, hand fettled stone (below right).

chelsea flower show garden ideas from the RAF garden
chelsea flower show garden ideas from the morris and co garden
chelsea flower show garden ideas from the mind garden
  • chelsea flower show garden ideas from the sticthers garden

Feeling inspired by this year’s Chelsea Flower Show?

Bring some of this year’s Chelsea Flower Show trends into your own outside space.

Our extensive range of high-quality garden stonework is made to order and available to purchase in a range of styles, sizes and colours.

Pick up the phone, or send us an email to discuss what you’re looking for.  Our friendly and experienced team will be more than happy to assist.

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