You may also like<\/strong><\/p> This year, all the show garden designs are different from each other, but at the same time, none of them are so, so different that they are show-defining, in the way that, say, that controversial Best in Show-winning quarry garden by Scape Design\/James Basson was.<\/a><\/p> The trends that can be identified are, pleasingly, what we predicted in our preview of the show here<\/a> on Gardens Illustrated<\/em> \u2013 lots of water in streams, ponds and pools<\/a>, and real sustainability credentials<\/a> in the construction.<\/p> Will this year’s gardens disappoint people of a more progressive nature?<\/p><\/blockquote> The planting is defiantly colourful in gardens such as Ann-Marie Powell\u2019s design for The National Trust <\/a>and Matthew Childs\u2019 for the Terrence Higgins Trust<\/a>, with bright clashing combinations, and Miria Harris <\/a>has sweeps of blocked colour from rusty oranges through to pinks. But on Ula Maria\u2019s shady woodland-style garden for Muscular Dystrophy UK<\/a>, there is a more calming mix of pinks<\/a>, purples, blues and whites<\/a>; and Tom Stuart-Smith\u2019s<\/a> has a soothingly pale palette of white and yellow. There are pine<\/a> trees on some gardens and birches<\/a> on others, hazels and koelreuterias, alders and willows. It\u2019s a struggle to pull out any real common threads from the design features or planting.<\/p> The gardens at Chelsea 2024<\/strong><\/p> But, stepping back to see the big picture, one thing is clear. The gardens may all be different, BUT they are all gardens. Not evocations of a ruined house <\/a>or a beaver dam<\/a> or a mountain in Korea <\/a>\u2013 all of which I loved, by the way \u2013 but gardens through and through. Good old-fashioned spaces for outside houses and for humans to cultivate plants, you know? Perhaps this shouldn\u2019t be so notable for a garden show, but compared to the experimental spaces of recent years, it seems like a return to normal service for Chelsea. This will utterly delight many visitors, but will it disappoint others of a more progressive nature?<\/p> I don\u2019t believe so. There is still ambition and experimentation here, but it is tempered by a clear desire to make these spaces beautiful and enjoyable to be in – quietly breathtaking rather than brazenly gasp-inducing. The standard and complexity of the designs and builds across the main show gardens is noticeably high, so, whether you like a design or not, you cannot deny the excellence of its execution and success in achieving its aims. There may be a bumper number of Gold medals on Main Avenue this year, and I don\u2019t envy the judges<\/a> choosing the Best in Show award.<\/p> But when it comes to that big prize, I\u2019m willing to stick my neck out and say, I think it\u2019s a tale of two Toms. Tom Stuart-Smith<\/a> and his studio team have crafted an exquisite garden for the National Garden Scheme, an update on the traditional cottage garden with exuberant woodland planting, a stunning oak cleft shed, the most incredible wizened, spreading hazel trees and a double stone sink that would make any gardener giddy. It\u2019s so good, it might even make me like rhododendrons.<\/p> Tom Massey\u2019<\/a>s design for Water Aid, created with architect Je Ahn, is a very different, very modern beast, but just as noteworthy, with a sculptural structure in winding rusty steel forming the central focal point. It defines the space without being heavy or domineering, somehow perfectly in scale, and a touch of romance is created by the single tree thrusting up through the opening at its centre. Metal walkways float above the pond<\/a> and the planting, chunky timber seats<\/a> and stacks of stone ground the space, and worthy, but still pretty, planting flushes through the gaps in between.<\/p> Most importantly, both of these gardens, and most of the others on Main Avenue<\/a>, feel good to look at, and wonderful to be in, should you be lucky enough to be invited on. And isn\u2019t that all that any of us really want from a garden?<\/p>![\"The](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/40\/2024\/05\/Chelsea2024__H8A0501_May-19-2024-scaled.jpg\")