Wilderness RHS GOLD
Chelsea Flower Show 2022
Wilderness Foundation UK Garden
Designer: Charlie Hawkes
RHS Gold Medal Winner
All about Plants Best in Category
CLICK HERE for Chelsea Highlights
“The intention of the Wilderness Foundation UK’s garden is to convey a sense of how powerful their work can be in changing how people feel, about their relationship to the natural world and crucially about themselves.” Charlie Hawkes
Best in Category Award from Sue Biggs, RHS Director General
“Awe and Wonder towards the natural world has the backing of science in showing how it soothes us, connects us to a bigger universe, and reduces our egos. The Wilderness Foundation Garden will showcase the value of connecting people and nature, how it can heal us and how, in turn, we commit to our continued care for it. We are excited to have the opportunity to engage with the public, immersing them within the garden, as the plants will really be doing the work on our behalf.”
Jo Roberts, CEO
Wilderness Foundation UK Garden
Meaningful interactions with nature and wild places invite a sense of awe and wonder. By providing opportunities and experiences in such places the foundation helps transform lives and improve mental wellbeing. By experiencing the wild we are growing the next generation of stewards of the natural world by also invoking a sense of value and care. A key part to this is immersion, which formed the core of the garden’s medal winning concept.
Inspired by plant communities Charlie encountered while gardening in native Japanese forests, this sense of green immersion was heightened by lifting the planting and intersecting a path through it at Chelsea. Sided with charred timber, the walkway enabled visitors to engage with the predominately green understory from a more encompassing perspective. Two lichen-covered boulders protruded out of the vegetation and into the path at the space’s centre, providing a place to sit and experience the positive impact of the garden and a sense of the Foundation’s work in situ.
Charlie Hawkes
Charlie Hawkes is an international landscape designer and gardener based in the UK. His training combined formal study in Landscape Architecture at Edinburgh University, three years working in Tom Stuart-Smith’s studio, and gardening placements at the Tokachi Millennium Forest, Great Dixter and Gravetye Manor.
Together these experiences have informed a balanced position within horticulture and design, and a responsive approach that is intuitive to the unique character of each landscape and place. Charlie now works from his studio in London and has projects across the UK as well as in the United States.
This was his first Chelsea Flower Show garden design and we were delighted to be his chosen charity.
www.charliehawkes.co.uk
Following on from Chelsea, our charity show garden, supported by Project Giving Back, has been relocated to Henry Maynard School in Walthamstow, E17. The relocation to an urban school environment replaces their tarmac playground and gives the school children an opportunity to continue to experience and care for the unique selection of plants and the garden’s enduring legacy.
“My garden is tiny so it would be brilliant to have a school garden.”
Henry Maynard Student, aged 9
Donate to Help People & Nature
PLEASE DONATE TODAY. Every donation, no matter the size, will make a difference. As a lasting legacy from our RHS Chelsea Garden this year, our Awe & Wonder appeal helps raise funds to expand our outdoor face to face therapy for children, young people and adults.
Post Covid, 1 in 4 people suffer with their mental health. Please help us by donating so we can offer more FREE therapy and reach even more vulnerable people in crisis. Through our outdoor therapy and education we know nature can significantly improve mental and physical wellbeing.
Together we can build a stronger and healthier society who care for themselves and the natural world. THANK YOU!
The Hermit of Treig
Alongside our Awe & Wonder Appeal, through the screening of the iconic ‘Hermit of Treig’ film, we will engage young people and schools across the UK in discussions about Wilderness, Wild Spaces and Mental Wellbeing.
