Chelsea 2012: Artisan Gardens

The Satoyama Life garden won a Gold Medal and was also chosen as the Best Artisan Garden – and for once we agree with the Chelsea judges, although it was a pretty obvious choice as it was easily the best of the small gardens – we also particularly like the designer’s work and his intricate use of moss.

Autumn at Winkworth Arboretum (National Trust)

Winkworth Arboretum is National Trust-owned woodland, in Surrey, near to Godalming, and is famed for its fall foliage, mainly thanks to numerous species of maple amongst its collection of more than 1,000 different shrubs and trees, many of which are rare.

HERE COMES THE JUDGE

If there is one thing you can be sure of at the RHS Chelsea flower show - it's that you probably won't agree with the judge's decision. There are gardens that get gold medals - but look tired just a fews days into the show. There are gardens that you would want to recreate in part or in whole that only get a bronze. This year our favourite garden only got a silver medal.

Iris Sibirica 'Tropic Night'

The garden was called  Kazahana (A light snow flurry from a cloudless sky) designed by Kazuyuki Ishihara.  He has won three gold medals at Chelsea - so it must have been disappointing to only get silver this year.

Equisetum Japonicum

The planting was beautiful. We took a load of photos and chatted to one of the people on the stand who very kindly let us enter the garden. Usually at Chelsea only the Queen, Alan Titchmarsh or friends of the designer are allowed into a garden. This is a shame because gardens are meant to be enjoyed from the inside and this is definitely true of this garden.

The garden was designed to be a roof garden with a  hidden room that is meant to enclose you in a green world. Perhaps he was marked down as it is difficult to appreciate this room from outside the barrier - where the public stand.

All the walls are covered with these beautiful, tactile mounds of moss which must have taken ages to grow. Even the table in the room was covered in this living green.

Over the top of the room ran a glass rill flowing into a waterfall to fill the pond.

Water also flowed down the windows - letting in light but giving privacy from outside prying eyes.

Even amongst the noise of Chelsea it was cool and calming inside the garden. I actually found it quite moving.

keeping everything spick and span

Related post (on our technology blog): Lack of HD gives Chelsea the blues