One month on from the start of the build at the RHS Badminton Flower Show and we’ve been reflecting on this incredible event! 

Credit RHS Neil Hepworth

After years of building award-winning show gardens for other designers, The Cricket Pavilion Garden was the first garden we have built that was also designed by Frogheath Landscapes Director, Steve Moody. This was also the Badminton Estate’s inaugural RHS show so despite a lot of experience in this area it was still a bit of the unknown (even for us!)

Credit RHS Neil Hepworth

The garden was inspired by the Old Heathfield cricket ground and is all about bringing people together. The Cricket Pavilion Garden supports Young at Heart who are based at the cricket ground and are a valued community hub that offers companionship and activities to local seniors outside of their home. They are often joined by local school children for activities such as art, reading and planting where young and old can learn new skills together. 

A part of what makes this garden so special is that the plants used had been propagated by local school children and elderly clients of Young at Heart at planting sessions that Steve runs, making this show garden a real community effort!

Our team made fantastic progress during the build of the garden. Despite scorching temperatures they stayed on track and were able to keep the thousands of plants on site alive and well. 

Through our experience working on show gardens we’ve made some great friends that offered to come and give us a hand! A huge thank you to MUSA Landscape Architecture, Plant Based Gardens, B7 Limited and Mike and Julie McMahon. It felt very fitting that for a garden with a theme of community we found we had so many kind offers of help. 

We were also incredibly grateful for help from Britain’s oldest cricket bat maker, Gray-Nicolls (https://www.gray-nicolls.co.uk/) who generously contributed items to demonstrate the craft of bat making.

Majestic Trees (www.majestictrees.co.uk) who provided trees for the garden.

Dragon Willow (www.dragonwillow.co.uk) for our beautiful willow sculptures, a batsman and a woman with a child on a bench, the latter inspired by a real-life scene of a Young at Heart visitor reading with a school child.

Of course a very important thank you to our gardens sponsor Alitex (www.alitex.co.uk). 

Marie-Louise Agius, chair of the RHS judging panel described the garden as “An exuberant and rambunctious display of joy in the garden brought a smile to the face of all of the judges. With much of the planting grown by communities and local schoolchildren, the garden had a sense of establishment and believable sense of place.”

We were thrilled to win a Gold Medal for the garden and subsequently the Best Show Garden award. We loved our time at the Badminton Flower Show and we’re so proud of the whole teams effort in the lead up and throughout this event.