The Award Winning Garden

(Hampton Court)

Silver-gilt medal winning show garden design. (RHS Hampton Court 2024).

Climate-forward ideas for small gardens.

My Climate-Forward garden won silver gilt in the Get Started category at the RHS Hampton Court Garden Festival 2024. The garden is a showcase of climate-friendly ideas for gardening in a changing climate.

The boundary embraces circularity and packs in habitat in a neat, upright way. That means reclaimed exotic timber the fire of the Queens Wharf in Falmouth was dragged from the sea bed and milled rather than scrapped. And habitat poles are lined up neatly, becoming home to pollinators as soon as they were installed.

The sun-loving planting showcased how to mix Australian drought-tolerant plants with those you might be more familiar with growing in the UK.

The entire surface is completely permeable and easily handled the deluges during the show week.

This style is ready to be adapted to your space, with natural materials, low-water planting, a curved seating area and bespoke art.

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The 10 guiding MHGD project principles

Each Melanie Hick Garden Design garden works to as many of our ten principles as possible. This project incorporated these garden design principles.

Belonging, sense of place, stewardship - intended to show how to take care of this earth in the climate criss we live in.
Climate resilience for a robust future - completely permeable no rain leaves site.
Accessible ways in to the garden - wide paths, one small step.
Discovery and play to connect with nature and each other - burned wood invites a conversation about the increased fire risk in the climate crisis
Emotional wellness for rest, grounding and resonance - designed as a space for friend to meet.
Spatial organisation - the pleasing outcome of good design - a curved embrace, protected from all sides
Cultural meaning with art, storytelling and artefacts - Australian red gum timber ties to the Australian theme
Species-specific habitat to measure our effectiveness - simple open flowers known to support UK moths and butterflies
Reclaimed and low carbon materials - our timber is reclaimed red gum from the wharf fire at Queens Wharf, Falmouth
Retain high value existing trees and links to history - a precious snowgum hints at how this would be achived in a real world application.