Peace garden features at Chelsea

The first in a series of show gardens inspired by the sayings of prominent people about Peace will feature in the Fresh Category at this year’s 2015 Chelsea Flower Show.

Designer Tatyana Shynkarenko, deeply moved by the situation in her native Ukraine, has found inspiration for the design of the garden from the Gautama Buddha expression: “Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.”

‘Thinking of Peace’ is a live garden open to everyone, a place of contemplation and oneness with nature where everyone can find something for themselves – something unique, attractive, useful.

Tatyana (pictured left) explains that the garden has a reflective pool within which there is a perfect square filled with flowers and a tree that stands in the middle of the square. The tree – Cydonia oblonga (Quince) is echoed in the mirror pool surrounding the garden. There are four different planting combinations within the square, each intended to reveal what peace might feel like – gentle, benevolent, joyful and stable.

“The garden is a place where one can experience calm, feel free, happy and protected yet open to all possibilities,” says Tatyana. “It would be good if everyone had a place where one can come, rest and think before moving forward with their lives.”

The garden also features a ‘life compass’ built around the square, with defining guides helping one find a way out of a difficult situation.

As a backdrop to the plants there will be a ‘Rain of Weightless Happiness’ water feature with water droplets held delicately in the air on transparent strings.

Using horticulture, the garden is designed to invite participants of conflict to look at situations afresh.