The Yeo Valley Organic Garden
A Main Avenue Show Garden, designed for the first ever Autumn RHS Chelsea Flower Show in September 2021. The Yeo Valley Organic Garden was awarded an RHS Gold Medal, voted the BBC ‘Peoples’ Choice’ and was the first RHS show garden to be approved by the Soil Association, demonstrating and promoting organic principles.
By incorporating habitats and plants found at Yeo Valley’s family-run organic farm and garden in Somerset, the show garden offered a slice of rustic nature within the show-ground and was designed to promote soil health, encourage biodiversity, support pollinators and attract beneficial wildlife.
At the front of the garden an open meadow of flowering perennials and grasses provided swathes of colour and texture. Charred log walls offered dramatic juxtaposition to the planting whilst dividing the landscape. Formed of carbon-rich biochar ash logs, these walls were a visual representation of soil health and the importance of keeping carbon in the soil.
Suspended by a huge corten steel arm, a steam-bent oak hide, (designed in collaboration with furniture designer Tom Raffield), offered a sculptural focal point. Once inside the egg shaped hide the visitor had the ability to winch themselves up and down via an internal block and tackle chain system. A glass bottom revealed views to the fast flowing stream below, providing a place to sit quietly and observe the natural environment and visiting wildlife.
A simple steel trough at the back of the garden contained a reflective pool, an origin for the fast-flowing stream. Meandering through Mendip limestone boulders and marginal planting, this stream connected the different areas of the garden, whilst the sound of running water created a calming backdrop.
At the rear of the garden a woodland full of autumnal fruiting trees such as Medlar featured alongside native species like silver birch, hazel and hawthorn, creating a green backdrop and calming dappled light and shadows.
The garden was built by Landscape Associates
Photographs by Britt Willoughby Dyer
