Authentic feel for RHS Chelsea Yorkshire garden

The Welcome to Yorkshire garden at this year’s (2018) RHS Chelsea Flower Show will certainly have an authentic Yorkshire feel about it as 35 tonnes of walling stone and 15 tonnes of glacial boulders have now been collected to showcase Yorkshire’s iconic countryside.

It’s all on loan from the Bolton Estate having been collected near Castle Bolton in the Yorkshire Dales National Park and will be returned to the Estate after the show. Designer Mark Gregory has been inspired in his garden design by the stunning Yorkshire Dales, world famous for its Wensleydale cheese, wildflower and buttercup meadows and of course the iconic drystone walls.

The glacial boulders will be used to help create a tumbling beck and fast flowing stream on the garden. The garden will showcase the county’s plentiful natural materials, traditional crafts and skilled artisan food production and the aim is to encourage those who see the garden to visit the county and experience its beauty first-hand.

The garden will also showcase the wonderful and unique local produce found in the Dales, especially Yorkshire Wensleydale and genuine traditional cheese making equipment is being loaned to Welcome to Yorkshire by the Wensleydale Creamery in Hawes.

Designer Mark Gregory wants to create a garden that truly evokes the beauty of Yorkshire and points out that you have to start with the right ingredients: “We wouldn’t be doing it justice if we didn’t borrow part of the soul of the county and it’s amazing that we are being given access to this kind of quality material. We are trying to make it as authentic as possible but we are also being incredibly respectful of the environment.”

Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority chief executive David Butterworth is delighted to be supporting the garden: “We hope it will, in turn, inspire visitors to the Chelsea Flower Show to come and enjoy the sights, smells and tastes of the Park for themselves. The whole purpose behind the involvement of the National Park Authority in an event of this kind is to ensure that the Park itself, its landscape, communities and businesses remain in the public eye and benefit accordingly,” he said.

The Welcome to Yorkshire show garden is a regular at RHS Chelsea and previous gardens have been awarded one Gold medal, six Silver and one Silver Gilt as well as six People’s Choice Awards so it will be one to look out for.

Mark will be marking his 30th consecutive year in horticulture at this year’s RHS Chelsea and in that time he has managed and deliver 157 show gardens and exhibits with over 90 of these being at the Chelsea Flower Show itself.

Picture credits: all photographs ©Welcome to Yorkshire: Banner – on left chief executive of WTY Sir Gary Verity with garden designer Mark Gregory. Middle: L-R, chief executive of WTY Sir Gary Verity with Mark Gregory, Kathryn Beardmore (director of Park Services Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority) and David Hartley MD Wensleydale Creamery.