This year, one of our favourite local summer events, Chelsea Flower Show is open digitally. Every day this week the show has presented a series of virtual events with world-leading designers and plant experts who have provided practical gardening advice. The event has been welcomed by everyone who has embraced green spaces during lockdown. A Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) poll “found that 57% of people who have gardens and outdoor spaces value them more than before lockdown and 71% they have helped with their mental health in recent weeks” (The Guardian). Our designers have been tuning in and enjoying the show’s daily events as a way to learn more about gardens and landscaping for our current and future projects as well as improve their own gardening skills at home. They have shared their favourite events and things they have learnt during this year’s Virtual Chelsea Week.

Top Picks from Chelsea Flower Show 2020

Health and Wellbeing Benefits

The Royal Horticultural Society champion the benefits of gardening for our mental and physical health and this year’s show coincides with Mental Health Awareness Week. Gardening is known to improve your mood and reduce stress levels as well as increase your productivity and are keen to learn more about ways to improve our own outdoor spaces. Some of our interior design team have been using nature as a way to keep themselves mentally healthy during the lockdown and have found the benefits of spending time outside in nature invaluable.

In 2020 there has been a noticeable shift in the interior design industry to become more sustainable in the approach to design and materials used. This extends to our gardens too and Alan Titchmarsh explained how the RHS aim to inspire everyone to grow, to increase people’s passion for plants and to train the next generation of gardeners to solve the solutions facing the environment. As an interior design studio, we work closely with the indoor and outdoor environments to create homes that have a duty of care to the future generations.

Designing a Healing Garden from Robert Myers

Garden Designer Robert Myers shared his ideas on how to create a garden that helps with our physical and mental wellbeing through a healing garden. He recommends including plenty of greenery, adding reflective or moving water and selecting plants that attract wildlife and increase biodiversity. He also says that engaging all the senses is a crucial element to a healing garden through “plants and sculptures that dance in the breeze, scented flowers and moving water to catch the light and create tranquil sound.” These holistic principles will create a garden that is designed for healing and restoration.

Garden Design Tips from Sarah Eberle

The award-winning designer Sarah Eberle provided her design tips on how to enjoy your garden space now that we are spending large amounts of time at home. At this time of year, our gardens will start to flower and she recommended taking photos of flowers or shrubs that you like so that you can remember them by autumn ready for replanting. Sarah also recommended supporting your local garden centre or nursery and buy some plants to play around with in the garden. Take their advice on plants in sunlight or shady areas and get a selection of plants to see how they grow in your garden environment and to establish which ones are your favourite. Being mindful in your garden by observing your favourite elements of nature will help you to develop a garden design that suits your taste.

Cutting Gardens from Sarah Raven

Sarah Raven, behind the infamous Sarah Raven’s Cutting Garden, shared her seasonal cutting flowers that come into bloom at this time of year including the purple sensation allium, terracotta and beefeater lupins, guelder rose and euphorbias. She advises when cutting flowers for arrangements to pick them, sear them in boiling water for 10-30 seconds depending on the woodiness of their stems, rest overnight in boiling water and arrange the next morning. We recently shared our tips on arranging fresh cut flowers at home.

Roses from David Austin Roses

One of the Helen Green Design team’s favourite flowers are roses. As England’s national flower they are the perfect flower to place in our British interior design schemes and gardens. David Austin Roses nursery, a regular at the Chelsea Flower Show, attract visitors from all around the world to their nurseries. This year they were due to exhibit two new roses: Silas Marner with deep red foliage and The Country Parson with softer grey-green foliage and yellow roses which we admired greatly.