Landscaping Ideas | Reds Landscaping and Design

Landscaping ideas from the worlds best landscapers are on display annually at Chelsea near London.

The annual Royal Horticultural Society flower show in the south grounds of the Royal Chelsea hospital could be the most famous flower show in the world. Of course, there is much more to see than flowers. The quality and attention to detail of these gardens is amazing.

Landscaping construction, such as paving and wall construction, was a strong garden theme throughout the show. Over 150,000 visitors during the 5 days, and daily prime time television coverage. The flower show provides huge exposure for landscape designers, plant nurseries, industry suppliers, and some trending landscaping ideas.

“Space to Grow” Garden Themes Landscaping ideas for small gardens

This year’s flower show featured 26 amazing garden themes and landscaping ideas, including a garden theme called “Space to Grow” gardens. This new garden theme is aimed at creating landscaping ideas and inspiring gardeners to “transform their urban, compact, or unusual spaces”. The Chelsea flower and garden show off all the latest landscaping ideas, garden themes, and excellently executed construction by some of the best landscapers and landscape designers in the world. On display, there were many great ideas for small gardens.

Although the landscaping construction at Chelsea has an enormous budget, there are many design ideas that the average gardener can incorporate into their own garden. The eight gardens in this “Space to Grow” theme were certainly inspirational.

Landscaping Ideas Chelsea Flower Show - Reds Landscaping and Design

The Urban Flow Garden was designed by Tony Woods. A Gold Medal and Category winner Salvias, euphorbias, astrantias, lupins, and iris are used in the garden while the leaves of the Ginkgo biloba tree cast beautiful shadows.

Landscaping Ideas Chelsea Flower Show Outdoor Kitchen ideas - Reds Landscaping and Design — *Landscaping Ideas Chelsea Flower Show Outdoor Kitchen ideas.*

Landscaping Ideas: Outdoor kitchens and vertical gardens.

An outdoor kitchen and vertical gardens were on display in the Urban Flow Garden. Having a vertical garden covering a wall with fresh herbs and lettuce right next to the outdoor kitchen was a great idea. This would be a fantastic landscaping idea for our Melbourne outdoor lifestyle.

Landscaping Ideas - Colourful garden - Reds Landscaping and Design

Landscaping Construction

These gardens are enormous accomplishments for the landscape designers, horticulturalists, and the landscape construction companies. Building these gardens and creating unique structures in a number of weeks requires great skills in the landscape design and construction industry. The hardscaping elements such as paving, retaining walls from brick, block and rock, lighting, outdoor entertaining and feature ponds had no expense spared. The plant placement and planting, right down to the spread of mulch, were not left to the last minute either; time and care went into the presentation of these beautiful gardens.

For many of these gardens, the designers visit plant wholesalers all over Europe to hand select the plants for the show. Three batches of plants are ordered to ensure flowering at the right time for the show. The cold snaps in the European spring, including the beast from the east, have made it especially difficult this year. The estimated landscaping cost of creating these gardens ranges from $500,000 to $1,800,000 Australian dollars.

Landscaping Ideas - Chelsea Flower Show. Welcome to Yorkshire garden - Reds Landscaping and Design — *Landscaping Ideas – Chelsea Flower Show. Welcome to Yorkshire garden.*

Multi award winner Mark Gregory wins the Peoples choice award for his "Welcome to Yorkshire Garden". — *Multi award winner Mark Gregory wins the Peoples choice award for his “Welcome to Yorkshire Garden”.*

The Artisan Gardens: Landscaping ideas for smaller gardens.

On a smaller scale than the show gardens are the artisan gardens. These are smaller plots showcasing the design and building skills of master craftsmen and master craftswomen. Traditional hard landscaping skills are on display in these gardens. The 2018 show featured 8 of these inspirational gardens, each with an underlying theme.

Artisan Gardens - Reds Landscaping and Design

The Great Pavilion: flowers and plants from around the world

The great pavilion features stands from the best plant nurseries from Britain and around the world. There are also floristry exhibits, science and education exhibits. In the center of the pavilion, the Royal Horticultural Society had their “RHS Experience” center. This included the opportunity for visitors to get free horticultural advice from gardening experts.

Amongst the specialist plant nurseries were Hardy Eucalyptus, who have been growing eucalyptus trees in the UK since 2000 and are now the UK’s largest supplier of Eucalypt trees.

They have a great passion for the Gum tree, and are able to help with advice on the selection, planting and care of your eucalypt. Another plant nursery with some Australian plants was Kells Bay, on the stunningly beautiful Ring of Kerry in Ireland.

Landscaping Ideas - Chelsea Flower Show - Reds Landscaping and Design

Judging the Gardens

The gardens are judged by a panel of highly experienced judges and the medals are awarded corresponding four different levels. The Gold medal, the Silver-Gilt medal, the Silver medal and the Bronze medal. In addition to the medals, special awards are given for Best Show Garden, Best Artisan Garden, and Best “Space to Grow” garden. Show gardens are judged on the delivery of the client’s design brief. The judges consider if the imagined client would be happy with the outcome, and if the garden design objective have been met.
Additional judging criteria is as follows;

Design;

How original is the garden design?
Does the layout of the garden work for its supposed purpose?

Overall impression;

Is the choice of materials aesthetically pleasing and does it complement the garden?
Does the garden work as a whole?

Planting;

Are the plant associations shown in the garden correct according to species and cultural relevance?
Does the planting work together visually to create impact?

Construction – A superb finish and attention to detail are expected across the whole garden;

What standard is the build quality?

Conceptual gardens are also judged on;

Concept;
- To what extent has the theme/message/concept been realised?
- In addition to these awards, the BBC also gives a “people’s choice” award for each category.

Garden trends and landscaping ideas

The emerging trends and landscaping ideas that can be seen in these photos include rich, earthy colours such as rusty steel, walls of dry stone, rammed earth, and terracotta. Sarah Price’s garden below, inspired by Monet, contains many drought tolerant plants. This is why the mediterranean look is popular with many Melbourne landscapers.

There is also the use of naturalistic concrete in various shades of grey, with an almost brutalistic touch in some of the other gardens.

Landscaping Ideas - Vertical Gardens - Chelsea Flower Show

Landscaping Ideas - Rooftop Gardens - Chelsea Flower Show

In landscape construction, there is also the use of natural wood colours and mixed colour plantings, including blues, pinks, reds, purples, and especially yellows and creams. Also prominent were vertical gardens, especially edible and herb gardens. One very common garden theme is the use of water in tranquil garden ponds, flowing streams or fountains, and other water features.
These were very low maintenance gardens in that respect. Even the border hedges were not as tightly trimmed as you might expect with the typical English or European garden design. There were many gardens with eco-friendly landscape design ideas. The green roof below is an exceptional example. Another common theme was the use of rocks and existing land contours to create contrast and illusions in the garden.

Landscaping Ideas - Exotic Flowers - Chelsea Flower Show

If you are planning a trip to the UK, we recommend including this flower show in your itinerary as the photographs don’t really do these gardens and landscape ideas justice. These gardens provide amazing landscaping ideas and give you great insight into the latest landscaping trends.