Rae Wilkinson's garden design blog

The Abbeyfield : A Breath of Fresh Air  Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2016 A garden designed for people living with dementia. Thank you for visiting the show - it has been a great success for my sponsor and residents have visited and enjoyed the garden every day. We all feel honored to have been involved with such a worthy cause. The garden will live on with the relocation to a care home in Kew next week. Plant list: Trees – Salix alba pollard (white willow) Grasses - Calamagrostis overdam  Carex testacea Miscanthus grascillimus  Miscanthus morning light  Stipa tenuissima Shrubs and Perennials - Achillea terracotta  Astilbe peach blossom Delphinium black Knight Geum totally tangerine  Lavandula angustifolia  Lavandula Hidcote  Lavandula twickle purple Mentha piperita  Pittosporum golf ball Salvia caradonna Thymus silver queen  Verbascum alba Verbascum Helen Johnson  ...

A Breath of Fresh Air There are few things more reviving than a breath of fresh air. Being outside in a green space can provide a sense of calm and well being, promote better health and even improve sleep patterns. When people are living with health problems, fresh air can be even more beneficial, especially if they have had to become fairly inactive or spend a lot of time inside. The Abbeyfield Society : A Breath of Fresh Air Designed by Rae Wilkinson Computer visual created by Coucou Design I am a firm believer in the healing power of nature and of beautiful places which provide space, a sense of escape, and some contact with nature. When I design gardens I am always thinking of the emotional effect of the space on the people who enter it. How it will trigger the senses ...calm the mind .. Consciously or not people are usually affected by their surroundings and I see it as my job to stimulate some good feeling even just for a moment. The effect  may be of decom...

HUG  Rae Wilkinson Design, Living Landscapes and Chaircreative created a soothing HUG at RHS Flower Show 2015 RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2015 - Silver Gilt  Living Landscapes Healing Urban Garden showed how a green space in an urban setting can be wonderfully soothing and restorative. Pooling our design and build talents, the HUG team successfully created a soothing, sculptural, urban garden space. The crowds loved the colour and feel of the space and the focal bench brought the intended wow factor. Planting was low maintenance, evergreen and predominantly herbs, providing a scented and naturalistic vibe to the space with hues of silver and blue. The HUG bench was lovingly created using sectional high grade oak which was carved and bleached, and set on custom cast white concrete feet. Its a piece of sculpture, a wonderful seat and a statement piece for any garden space.* Urbis supplied a Lily water bowl and three of their new style Olive Pots for dis...

Living Landscapes : HUG Plant list RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2015 It has been a wonderful experience exhibiting this year at Hampton Court Palace Flower Show - if you have visited I hope you enjoyed the show. Here is the final plant list:  Living Landscapes : HUG – Healing Urban Garden - Silver Gilt Plant List Trees: Cercis canadensis Eucalyptus debeuzevilii  Herbs: Lavandula Edelweiss  Lavandula Hidcote  Thymus broadleaf  Thymus Bressingham pink Thymus Citriodorus Thymus snowdrift Rosmarinus roma Rosmarinus officionalis  Salvia officionalis  Salvia officionalis purpurea  Shrubs: Hebe Sutherlandii  Hebe Mrs Winder Pittosporum tobira nanum  Pittosporum tom thumb Pittosporum variegatum  Westringia fruticans Perennials and grasses: Artemisia Powis castle Allium Sphaerocephalon  Astilbe Fanal  Deschampsia cespitosa Deschampsia pixie founta...

RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2015: My Healing Urban Garden with Living Landscapes I am delighted to be creating a show garden at RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show this year, for their 25 th anniversary year. The garden will be built and sponsored by Living Landscapes, an award winning landscaping company based in Horsham, West Sussex. For me, having designed and cared for gardens for many years, creating a show garden brings the opportunity to be creative in a more imaginative way. The garden is entitled ‘H U G’ - an acronym for ‘Healing Urban Garden’. The design is based on the  idea that green space in an urban environment can be powerfully restorative. My intention is to create a place of escape and retreat, a sensory hug within a small and simple green space. The colour scheme has been selected for calming qualities, whilst the planting palette is a largely herbal, evergreen and low maintenance combination of scented and textural foliage. Planting...

There are many conflicting and controversial theories as to why our seasons are so unpredictable these days. I am sure that human triggered climate change has as much to do with it as the basic evolution of the planet does. I have certainly noticed a marked change over the 15 years I have been working outside. When I became a working gardener around the turn of the century we were experiencing long periods of drought. Consequently the planting palettes we worked with at the time were very Mediterranean and as the seasons also remained fairly mild, some more exotic plants were commonly used too. Over the years I have watched the winter cold spells both shrink and grow and shrink again, and I have watched drought turn to flood. Every year we watch groups of plants suffer and have had to try new plants and be more and more careful about what we use. So where have we got to? Well its exciting in part, as we are thinking more laterally about our choices. Palettes have broadened sideways...