RHS Cardiff 2018 opens next month with leading nurseries, inspiring show gardens and a look at recycling in garden design.
There’s a big debate going on in the world of gardening about its impact on the environment. Gardeners’ World presenter Monty Don is trying to reduce his use of plastic, growers such as Bluebell Cottage Gardens Nursery are beginning to send out plants plastic-free while amateur gardeners are discussing how to recycle and reuse. So, a new feature at RHS Cardiff is highly topical.
The Regeneration Gardens will feature three designs that are based on recycling, chosen following a competition for recently graduated landscape architects and designers.
The aim is to get gardeners thinking about how they can use recycling to create beautiful gardens that save money and the environment.
“Regeneration is a major theme at this year’s show,” said show manager Anna Skibniewski-Ball. “Our exciting new competition sees up-and coming designers explore the importance and beauty of embracing original and quirky designs while considering the impact on the environment through thinking creatively about the materials they’re using.”
London College of Garden Design graduate Pam Creed has a Victorian feel to her garden, ‘The Reimagined Past’.
Salvaged household items, including fireplaces, grates and drain covers, will be used for paving and garden furniture.
The design celebrates the work of Victorian gardener William Robinson, who promoted a looser planting style and while the inner garden echoes the formality of the Victorian era, outside, the planting is less rigid.
Millie Souter’s ‘Urban Regeneration’ uses low-cost and easy-to-find materials to improve a public space on a small budget.
Reclaimed water tanks – salvaged from Scottish farms – form the basis of the design, and their harsh surfaces are set against soft planting in warm tones.
Millie, who studied at the Inchbald School of Design in London, has included a water feature and seating under trees to offer a quiet spot for reflection.
Childhood memories of playing with bubbles in a bathtub in her garden have inspired Shin Myung Ja’s design, ‘The Reflection Garden’.
She has transformed old baths into dining furniture, while a water feature echoes the memory of the bathwater.
More recycling is seen in the use of umbrella ribs and clothes hangers to create wall patterns.
The designer, who trained at Inchbald School of Design in Seoul, has chosen a simple monochrome colour palette with occasional splashes of colour, such as a flowering cherry tree.
What else is there to see at RHS Cardiff 2018?
RHS Cardiff 2018 has three show gardens, which will be judged, and a number of feature gardens.
Mike Furse will be making his show garden debut with a Japanese-influenced design. Father and son partnership Richard and Adam Davis will evoke the Welsh mountains in a design built using materials found entirely in Wales and Petra Kodurand will make a contemporary garden that needs minimal maintenance.
Feature gardens include three interactive glasshouse displays by the National Museum of Wales that will show how geology underpins the soil. There will be a celebration of community gardening, a display by British flower growers and a garden by The Wildlife Trust showing how to collect and use rainwater.
Gardeners will have plenty of opportunity to buy plants with 60 nurseries exhibiting in the Floral Marquee and Plant Village. Andy’s Air Plants and Surreal Succulents will be making their show debuts and other plants range from heucheras and streptocarpus to peonies and camellias.
The annual Wheelbarrow competition has an aquatic theme this year and schoolchildren will be decorating barrows with underwater creatures and scenes of coastal life.
“The show promises to be another spectacular celebration of spring, creativity and gardening,” said Anna. “There will be lots to get involved in and plenty of take-home ideas.”
• RHS Cardiff 2018 is held in Bute Park, Cardiff Castle, from April 13-15. For more information and to buy tickets, visit the website.