Urban gardening is now more important than ever and the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Flower Show Tatton Park 2017 (19 – 23 July), will showcase ways to green up grey spaces to help create happier, healthier and more sustainable cities, and to combat some of the biggest environmental challenges facing us today.
The 2101 garden by Wigan-based design team Warnes-Mcgarr features in the ‘Future Spaces’ category and depicts a garden of the future designed to cope with growing air temperatures. Drought-tolerant plants, typical of Mexican and South American landscapes, will feature alongside an aquaponics growing system to demonstrate a sustainable way of gardening, which uses waste from fish and other animals to nourish plants.

Stockport design duo Dan Newbury & Martin Williams showcase ways to transform small, bare urban spaces into thriving, multi-functioning gardens. The Live Garden, also in the ‘Future Spaces’ category, has three levels and features a living wall and innovative technology, including a concealed cinema screen, and uses a live audio feed to capture the sounds of local wildlife.

After three years exhibiting at the world-famous RHS Chelsea Flower Show, Lancashire-based John Everiss returns to RHS Tatton for United Utilities with the Slow the Flow Garden to tackle flash-flooding. The attractive, stylish and practical garden harnesses, conserves and slows the flow of rainfall in urban spaces.

Gardens and plants are not only essential for the environment but growing evidence indicates that they make us feel better and healthier. In fact 90% of us claim to feel better just being in a garden.
The ‘Remember Me’ Garden, created by local designers Jane Bingham & Penny Hearn for the Mid-Cheshire Hospitals Charity, features dementia-friendly ideas such as growing plants popular in the 1960s and 1970s to evoke childhood memories and other horticultural concepts to help ease the symptoms of people with the condition.

The 6m by 4m Back to Back Gardens will provide further inspiration on how to create a green retreat with limited space. Liverpool designer Paul Morris has created the Relaxation Meditation Garden, aiming to provide a relaxing space for meditation and inspire visitors to do the same at home, and features calming herbs, like camomile, mint and sage.

Miserable commutes may be a thing of the past. The Bus Stop Boulevard, a 25m long street scene, will feature six planted-up bus shelters created by communities and designers from the Greater Manchester area. The RHS is calling on communities to enter the competition, supported by Transport for Greater Manchester, by applying here.

The Bruntwood Experiment, by headline supporter, Bruntwood, features resilient plants that thrive in our complex, changing and often forgotten urban areas. Underlining Bruntwood’s association with the science and technology sector, the garden will act as a physical ‘experiment’, with the behaviour of both plants and people being monitored as they come face to face.

Results of the ‘experiment’ will be used to inform the replanting of the garden at Bruntwood’s, Alderley Park campus, where it will form part of inclusive and vibrant internal and external spaces at the prestigious Parklands office building.
Chris Oglesby, CEO of Bruntwood said: “We are excited to once again be headline supporters of RHS Flower Show Tatton Park. Our collaboration runs far deeper than just brand association; we build partnerships with organisations like the RHS because we want to encourage creativity both socially and culturally. The Bruntwood Experiment reflects this and we are delighted that it will go on to be rehomed at Alderley Park as a garden that enhances the wellbeing of our customers, colleagues and the wider community”
Nick Mattingley, Director of RHS Shows said: “As the need for green spaces in urban areas increases, it is more important than ever to inspire people, communities and businesses to plant up, upcycle and do what they can to get greening. RHS Flower Show Tatton Park 2017 is full of horticultural ideas and inspiration, as well as thousands of plants to buy so come along in July and get gardening!”

Also at the show, innovative Garden Offices created by RHS Young Designer finalists, a butterfly dome containing thousands of tropical butterflies, Garden Hideaways, encouraging people to turn the humble garden shed into a custom made, up cycled, and innovatively decorated hideaway, and much more.

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