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^Project

Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival 2021

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^Type
Show Garden  

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^Completed
2021

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^Detail
64m² (688 ft²)
622 Perennials
5 Trees
15 Shrubs
2 Water rills
60 Sandstone pavers
2 Sweet Chestnut shingle panels
2 Tonnes of gravel
5 people
3 Volunteers 
Jenga blocks galore  
2m² of Soleirolia soleirolii 
168 Hours
Lots of Rain
Not much Sunshine
1 Silver Medal 
Best Construction Award
A cameo on the BBC 

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^{Collaborators}
Amelia Bouquet 
Surrey Ironcraft
London Stone 
Practicality Brown
All Green
New Wood Trees
Crocus
Mervin  

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^Service
Build 

Garden designer Amelia Bouquet invited us to construct her thoughtful garden, which was designed with a vision to promote tranquility within the built environment - it was titled The Communication Garden. We of course, jumped at the opportunity to build at the acclaimed Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival 2021.  

The Communication Garden, in support of Mental Health UK, is a symbolic refuge and a living, growing one. It’s a place to meet, talk, listen and to highlight the importance of face-to-face communication for our mental wellbeing.

Rustic woodland planting and native trees provide a protective canopy while encouraging us to look up and beyond. The partly secluded seating area draws the visitor in along fractured pathways and provides a safe place for ideas to ebb and flow. The specimen native trees act as an emblem of mental resilience and hope.

The wooden screen, made of Sussex-grown sweet chestnut, allows a view to the woodland planting while still offering sanctuary. Water sits alongside areas of planting providing a calming effect.   

The main hard landscaping is plank paving leading out asymmetrically from the wooden screen interspersed with rectangular sections of moss to show our natural and sometimes broken lines of communication.

Taxus baccata topiary balls symbolise ordered and more rigid thoughts. The ferns and hostas represent a mindset that is less inhibited and more relaxed and is reinforced with spontaneous bursts of colour from astrantias and hardy geraniums.

The garden won a Silver Medal and Best Construction!  

Photography - Ryan Thomas ©