Andy Sturgeon's Road to Chelsea - February
Andy Sturgeon's Road to Chelsea - February
We mentioned in our last newsletter that we would be running a series of articles in the run up to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, from the Show’s sponsors M&G. So, here is the first in the series M&G’s show garden designer Andy Sturgeon talks us through this month’s developments on the Road to Chelsea.
"February. It is not the most exciting month for gardeners. Little goes on outside. But for those of us designing gardens at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, this is a hugely exciting time, when everything starts coming together, bit-by-bit.
I’m particularly looking forward to this year as I get to explore a side of my work that I’m not generally known for. I was approached by M&G Investments, who are back for the third year as headline sponsors of RHS Chelsea, to design their show garden. I was originally surprised as they uphold fairly traditional values, whilst my designs are frequently modern, but as we started talking, it became clear that this could be a great fit. Although my gardens are often contemporary in style, I recently realised that they are totally reliant on the principles and ethos of the English Arts & Crafts Movement popularised by William Morris and John Ruskin. My design of The M&G Garden would be a interpretation of this typically English heritage - a ‘New English’ garden if you like – exploring traditional skills and natural materials but shown in their raw beauty with rustic textures revealed and construction techniques exposed. It’s a formal asymmetric layout, but expect to see some voluptuous borders and hopefully a few surprises in the planting palette too.
Things are slowly starting to take shape. I have been taking frequent trips to see how our ‘energy wave’ sculpture for the garden is developing, choosing stone for the three monolithic walls and checking on my plants – which at the moment resemble, well a lot of pots of compost. With time, I’ll add these details to a small mock up of the garden in my studio, to see how the materials, colours and textures all fit together.
February then, is not so bad after all."
To read more about the M&G garden, visit www.mandgchelsea.co.uk
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Hi Andy,
Love the design. I alwasys prefer gardens that are open to the eye from almost every angle. I don't do 'rooms' and this garden you have designed looks great. Can't wait to see the finished article on the telly.
Looking forward to seeing this in the flesh Andy. Perhaps you could really embrace the Arts and Crafts theme and drape what the Arts and Crafts boys called "Stunners" on the bench or have them waft along the pathing, voluptuously dressed in Pre Paphaelite style like "Flaming June"
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