Ann-Marie Powell’s colourful Octavia Hill Garden has won the RHS / BBC People’s Choice Award at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show.
It’s been another year of showstopping, inspirational and thought-provoking gardens at RHS Chelsea 2024. The judges handed out medals, from gold to bronze, along with Best in Show accolades, but the last award was all down to the public.
People’s Choice Award winner in the Show Garden category
The Octavia Hill Garden by Blue Diamond with the National Trust, which was awarded a silver-gilt medal and won the RHS Children’s Choice Award, has been crowned the public’s favourite garden.
It’s a beautiful plant-filled wildlife garden designed to stimulate physical, mental and social wellbeing, set within an urban brownfield site and inspired by pioneering social reformer Octavia Hill (1838–1912).
‘My goodness it’s amazing to win this award because the garden is designed for people to enjoy nature and plants and every good thing that they do for us and so for the public to recognise that and support it – is just ace! I’ve loved gardening and plants for so many years, I think, if I can just share a bit of the joy I feel from gardening then that will help someone else make their life a little bit better,’ said garden designer Ann-Marie Powell.
‘I think Octavia Hill, one of the founders of the National Trust, would love the fact we have won the People’s Choice award as it is recognition that the public approve of the work she championed all those years ago, to celebrate the joy, benefits and importance of gardens and plants for everyone.
‘It means so much for me and the hundreds of people who have worked on the garden to win this award and to have also received the RHS Children’s Choice Award chosen by children who are the gardeners of the future – that is just extraordinary!’
Earlier in the week, Gardeners’ World star Monty Don praised Ann-Marie’s ‘fabulous’ garden: ‘It’s a garden that just hums with life and colour and exuberance. And if you know Ann-Marie, that’s not surprising because that sums her up too. And of all the gardens here at Chelsea this year, this has the most colour. It just is celebrating that, whether it is through the marvellous mixture of the alliums and irises, or as you move down, there’s an area there of peach colours and apricots and coppers, which are amongst my favourite plants. This is a garden done by somebody who really now understands plants and knows how to use them.
‘And of course, the seats, the Octavia Hill seats where people can sit, are beautifully done. They’re incredibly well-crafted, and that matters.’
After RHS Chelsea, the Octavia Hill Garden will relocate to the Bridgemere Show Gardens in Nantwich, Cheshire.
People’s Choice Award winner in the smaller garden categories
The Pulp Friction – Growing Skills Garden by first time designers Will Dutch & Tin-Tin Azure-Marxen, has won the People’s Choice Award across the Sanctuary and All About Plants gardens.
The garden celebrates the work Pulp Friction does to champion the skill, determination and passion of their members with learning disabilities or autism, and challenges the perceptions of what they can achieve. Some Pulp Friction members were involved in the build of the garden, a prime example of what can be achieved and a demonstration of the power of inclusivity through gardening.
Key to the garden design is a large overhead hoop constructed from recycled fire hoses. Every plant species in the garden is edible, medicinal or beneficial to wildlife, and all of the hard landscaping materials are recycled or reclaimed.
People’s Choice Award winner in the Balcony and Container Garden category
In the Balcony and Container Garden categories, the public voted Children with Cancer UK ‘Raines Repurposed’, designed by 24-year-old Thomas Clarke, as their winner.
The balcony garden, designed to offer respite for families affected by childhood cancer, includes a shaded seating area, scented flowers, and a simple colour palette to create a calming, uncluttered and practical space for reflection.
Many elements of the balcony garden, including the seating and handmade floor tiles, are repurposed materials found on the site of old farm buildings and nearby felled trees.
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Source: uk.style.yahoo.com
