BBC Regional show gardens at RHS Chatsworth
Three BBC Regional show gardens will showcase the wonders of the surrounding area at the RHS Chatsworth Flower Show (5-9th June 2019).
BBC Radio Derby will be sponsoring ‘The Brewery Garden’ (pictured below) designed by Haydn Vernon. The garden will include a range of features and artefacts celebrating Burton-Upon-Trent’s famous industrial heritage. The use of water in the garden references the quality of the local water that helped make the town a prosperous, beer brewing community.
A strip of water cutting through the garden will represent the River Trent which provided important transport links. A sail canvas roof over a bar area gives a nod to the sailing ships which transported the locally brewed beer across the North Sea. Planting, including grasses and willows, will represent the Trent Washlands.
Sponsor BBC Radio Sheffield’s garden ‘Elements of Sheffield’ (pictured above) will be designed by Emily Barnes, and will celebrate the connection between the city and bordering Peak District. Historically, the Peaks provided raw elements of iron-ore, gritstone and water harnessed to power the steel industry. Today, they offer natural beauty, recreation and escape from the pressures of modern life.
Sheffield’s steel making industry is celebrated throughout the garden with a corten steel fence and stainless steel bars on the roof of the pergola. A steel water rill feeds a water bowl pool inspired by the Ladybower Reservoirs sinkhole. Gritstone boulders found on the moors will create a retaining wall, while a rock garden of dry stone walls contrasts with smooth limestone paving, chosen for strength and durability and symbolising Sheffield’s character.
BBC Radio Stoke will sponsor ‘An imagined Miner’s Garden’ (above) designed by Colin and Mary Bielby. They have joined forces to design a garden commemorating the Minnie Pit disaster, a coal mining accident that took place in January 1918 in which 155 men and boys died.
The garden imagines the type of garden the miners and their families may have cultivated with planting selected based on the miners’ imagined needs including herbs for cooking and medicinal use and cut flowers for display in their homes. Edibles will include potatoes, carrots and onions, a strawberry bed and the root crops used to make the popular local dish ‘Lobb’’.
Silhouettes of miners will be overlaid on the rear wall of the garden while seats, paths and raised beds will be painted black to represent the darkness of the mine.
The RHS Chatsworth Flower Show will run from 5th to 9th June 2019. Tickets to the Show and further information, please visit: rhs.org.uk/shows
Picture credits: Banner ©Reckless Gardener: garden design illustrations are strictly ©individual designers.
