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Garden inspiration

RHS Malvern Spring Festival

Small garden design inspiration


Small Garden Design inspiration at the Malvern Spring Show 2022.

The RHS Malvern Spring Show is the place to go for small garden inspiration. We’re so proud to have been awarded Silver Gilt at this year’s RHS Malvern. The RHS motto is ‘inspiring everyone to grow’ and this year’s show certainly fulfilled that brief.

small garden ideas

Our Show Garden – A Peaceful Escape

This modern, intimate and secluded space, as featured on the BBC’s Gardener’s World Programme, was cleverly designed by our lead designer, Jamie Langlands.

Jamie Langlands garden designerOur contracts manager, George White, worked tirelessly with our dedicated team of landscapers, to built the garden in under three weeks and create a place to relax away from the ‘home office’.

RHS silver gilt awardStone walls, supplied by London Stone, surround an intimate seating area and are constructed to provide both screening and structured viewpoints in and out of the space.small garden ideas inspiration

The sculpture

Inspired by an extraordinary spherical piece of coral and its maze-like outer pattern, David Harber’s ‘Geminus’ took centre stage to hover over the contemporary water feature. This elaborate metal garden sculpture of verdigris bronze lined with 23¾ carat gold leaf, gives the piece an ethereal glow, a breathtaking effect, even when the sun hid behind clouds!

The Planting

Evergreen and soft serene planting create a relaxing and contemplative feeling to the garden. Tall hedges of Prunus lusitanica and evergreen shrubs, Pittosporum tobira ‘Nanum,’ soften the facade and fill the remaining voids, adding to the feeling of intimacy.

Contemporary small city garden

Large stones surrounded by soft planting populate the front of the garden.

A water feature provides the link from the naturalistic front of the garden to the contemporary natural seating area.

Low, dividing walls, punctuated with viewing ‘windows’ allow glimpses through to other areas with the magnificent backdrop of The Malvern Hills.

Contemporary small city garden

Planting for small garden design inspiration

The main planting includes pines, Pinus nigra ssp. nigra, Pinus mungo ssp. uncinata and Pinus mugo ‘Klostergrün’

Jamie says, ‘Pines are often overlooked in garden designing so I wanted to use something more unusual to own the space.’

trees

Iris ‘Black Tie Affair, Geum ‘Totally Tangerine’ and Rosmarinus ‘Miss Jessop’s Upright’ give the garden a Mediterranean feel. Whilst the use of more whimsical, planting such as Camassia leichtlinii subsp. suksdorfii Caerulea, Aquilegia vulgaris var. stellata ‘White Barlow’ and Anthriscus sylvestris soften the effect and give flow.

Small garden inspiration

Thank you to Fiona Walsh Landscapes photography for allowing us to use her wonderful photos that really capture the mood of this small garden design inspiration, and, to our very own contacts manager, Jakub Soulak, who as well as being a wonderful hard landscaper, is a very talented photographer!

Small garden inspiration

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