What’s it all about….Chelsea?

A ramble around the ideas of Rewilding, Naturalistic and Regenerative Gardening

The Rewilding Question

As Chelsea 2024 approaches I wonder what controversies there will be this year? If nothing else Chelsea is great for generating discussion. There was quite the fuss post Chelsea Flower Show 2023 when the ‘old guard’ of Monty Don and Alan Titchmarsh were pitched publicly against a ‘new’ approach to gardening,  where 4 of the 12 gardens at The Chelsea Flower Show 2023 included plants that are usually considered weeds such as brambles and thistles in their gardens. Monty and Alan protested that this was trendy rewilding but not real gardening.

Cleve West’s rather beautiful planting, including weeds at Chelsea 2023

Charlie Harpur, Head Gardener at Knepp Estate, perhaps the most celebrated example of rewilding in the UK, then joined in the conversation, inviting them to see what he is doing there.  Knepp is wonderful but huge  - it’s an estate after all. However, the owners have employed some of the greatest garden and planting designers and ecologists there to see if they could take what they learned from the rewilding on the estate and apply it to a smaller garden space. For this they chose their walled garden (although still considerably larger than the average British garden) and enlisted James Hitchmough, Tom Stuart Smith, Mick Crawley and Jekka McVicar to design it.  In the city gardens that I typically work on, there are few large animals that will contribute to the ecosystem in the way that animals have at the rewilded Knepp Estate (other than pets or squirrels and foxes and they are rarely helpful!), but at Knepp garden we are invited to consider humans as the ‘keystone species’, with their interventions creating disturbances in the land to allow other species to thrive. In short, the garden at Knepp is not really ‘wild’ it is edited, and by a master plantsman at that, who understands where to edit. I’ve also seen the Knepp Gardens been called ‘Chaos Gardening’ which I like even less as this garden, with all the great garden minds that went into its creation, has required a huge amount of plant knowledge and maintenance knowledge, which I don’t think the word ‘chaos’ gives justice to.

There has been, rightly, an emphasis on sustainability at Chelsea in recent years but I would argue that sustainability can encompass many gardening styles and that the focus on ‘rewilding’ is simply off putting for many gardeners, who do not wish to see their gardens taken over by weeds. While weeds may simply just be plants in the wrong place, and are often good for pollinators, they are also often thuggish and difficult to control, such as bindweed, nettles, thistles and brambles. In a traditional gardening approach we weed, which at the end of the day, is not so very different from ‘editing’ but perhaps is more obvious for the everyday gardener.

Going back to Chelsea 2023, it was not the weed filled gardens but Sarah Price’s garden that won people’s hearts. Perhaps it was because, as well as being undeniably beautiful, it looked like the kind of garden that you could potter around in.  In short, more of a traditional garden.

Sarah Price’s Chelsea 2023 garden, including a potting table and a dining space

Naturalistic and Regenerative Gardening

I personally find the terms ‘naturalistic’ and ‘regenerative’ much more helpful than ‘rewilding’ when speaking of gardens. Naturalistic (note the ‘ic’) is not earnestly reproducing a natural environment but creating a looser look and feel than the clipped and formal English garden style of old. This style also moves away from the old labour intensive idea of annual bedding schemes. Using mainly perennial planting and devices such as leaving plants standing over winter to appreciate their form, and planting tightly, with plants succeeding each other seasonally within the same space, leaving little bare soil for weeds to colonise or for the soil to erode, are all ways of gardening that are kinder to the environment. In this style of gardening, the gardener again acts as an editor rather than a tidying tyrant, always placing plants according to their natural habitat and requirements (the old right plant, right place thing!) and allowing plants to spread and self seed in a less controlled way than traditional gardening.

Regenerative is, as it sounds, the idea that we can reintroduce beneficial insects and soil health as long as we provide the right conditions. It’s been a movement for some time in farming, and only recently has it been discussed with regards to gardening, but I believe that this approach, which focuses on soil health and biodiversity rather than a particular gardening style, will introduce a more balanced discussion.  Marian Boswall, who has already written the useful book ‘Sustainable Garden’ is bringing out a book next year on exactly this subject and I eagerly await its publication.

Are we helping or harming the environment when we garden?

One of the many reasons that I became a garden designer was that I wanted to contribute to the health of our outdoor spaces, to garden sustainably and to encourage biodiversity, so learning that gardening can in fact be more harmful than helpful has led me to read widely on the subject so that I can make informed decisions in my practice.

In the last year I’ve made my way through Darryl Moore’s ‘Gardening in a Changing World’ and Dave Goulson’s ‘The Garden Jungle (or Gardening to Save the Planet)’ and within those there is fierce criticism of traditional gardening practices. ‘Gardening in a Changing World’ is not a light read and spends a good part of the book setting out some philosophy and history of garden design and how we got to the situation we are in now, before, towards the end, more briefly talking about ways we might improve on it. ‘The Garden Jungle’ is a more approachable read and, as its name suggests, focusses largely on the creatures that inhabit our gardens, with again some suggestions on how we might improve our practices along the way. Both have strong criticism of us humans and have an emphasis on what we can do for what Darryl Moore calls the ‘more than human’ (ie all of the other creatures that inhabit our gardens).

It's right and correct to criticise the plastic pots, plastic grass, peat and pesticides that sadly remain common practice and to encourage more sustainable practices.  However, what troubles me is the pitting of one thing against another, whether it’s rewilding v traditional practice or garden creatures needs v human needs, when, for gardening practices to improve, I believe there needs to be a more win/ win approach. I believe that suggested improvements have to be practical and appealing as no one, but no one, likes to be made to feel a villain for something like gardening. I also don’t believe that we need to let our gardens be wild or unkempt in order for them to have significant environmental benefits as long as we pay attention to how they are built, how they are planted and how they are maintained.  

Gardens are for People

My interest in gardens is as much for what they can do for the people who use them as for their environmental benefit. I strongly believe that people need a calm, beautiful, safe space to relax and connect with nature, and that’s just what makes a garden a different kind of space from the rest of the natural world.

For me, part of the charm of gardens and gardening is the management of the space by people and, the feeling that what is happening in that space is to some extent predictable and intentional. The creation of a sense of calm and the feelings of accomplishment for the gardener are the benefits that go alongside that management.  For this reason, I won’t be recommending that my clients let their weeds run wild. However, I do find a looser, more naturalistic style both beautiful and practical, given the limited time most people can afford to spend on garden maintenance and with the understanding that this way of gardening also combines well with a regenerative approach. There is also some evidence to suggest that people find a more naturalistic look particularly calming and relaxing, providing the win/ win that I am always looking for.

My own garden, combining traditional favourite plants, but with a slightly carefree approach to weeds and self seeding!

If you’re looking to work with a garden design practice that strikes a balance between creating a calm haven for humans as well as a space that will benefit the ‘more than human’ then do get in touch!