7 Landscape Trends From the 2022 Chelsea Flower Show
Check out our roundup of themes from this year’s event to inspire ideas for your own outdoor space
There’s plenty to inspire at 2022’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show (May 24 to 28) in London as designers showed how to create landscapes that look beautiful, help to nourish our mental well-being and provide a food-rich habitat for wildlife. Read on to discover some of the trends at this year’s event.
Even a small balcony can make an impact, as the “Jay Day” garden (pictured), designed by Alison Orellana Malouf and Su-Yeon Angela Choi of Flock Party, shows. The compact spot is full of ideas for integrating plants that birds can use for food, such as a hazelnut tree and a floor substrate of moss, where birds can hide nuts.
Create a Lovely Wildlife-Friendly Garden in a Yard of Any Size
Create a Lovely Wildlife-Friendly Garden in a Yard of Any Size
Wild and Wonderful Planting
The recent trend for loose, natural planting continues at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show, with gardens displaying a mix of perennials and wildflowers. There were elegant mulleins (Verbascum spp.), avens (Geum spp.) and irises, as well as buttercups (Ranunculus spp.) — seen here in the “A Rewilding Britain Landscape” garden by Lulu Urquhart and Adam Hunt — and ragged robin (Silene flos-cuculi, USDA zones 5 to 8; find your zone).
We can take inspiration for our own yards with an ‘anything goes’ approach. Incorporate an abundant medley of plants that you and wildlife will love, and even feel free to embrace a few “weeds” if you keep them under control and they won’t negatively impact your plot.
The recent trend for loose, natural planting continues at this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show, with gardens displaying a mix of perennials and wildflowers. There were elegant mulleins (Verbascum spp.), avens (Geum spp.) and irises, as well as buttercups (Ranunculus spp.) — seen here in the “A Rewilding Britain Landscape” garden by Lulu Urquhart and Adam Hunt — and ragged robin (Silene flos-cuculi, USDA zones 5 to 8; find your zone).
We can take inspiration for our own yards with an ‘anything goes’ approach. Incorporate an abundant medley of plants that you and wildlife will love, and even feel free to embrace a few “weeds” if you keep them under control and they won’t negatively impact your plot.
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Outdoor Plots for Healing
The acknowledgement that a landscape can be instrumental in aiding mental health has continued, with many of the designs at Chelsea 2022 focusing on this theme.
An interesting example of this was “The Core Arts Front Garden Revolution” (pictured), designed by Andy Smith-Williams, where two neighbors removed the boundary between their front yards to create a shared space, reflecting Core Arts’ mission to support mental health and promote social inclusion.
There are ideas for getting little ones out into green space too, such as boulders, sculpted seats and a tippy-toe path in “The Place2Be Securing Tomorrow Garden” by Jamie Butterworth, which focused on children’s emotional well-being.
How to Design a Healing Garden at Home
The acknowledgement that a landscape can be instrumental in aiding mental health has continued, with many of the designs at Chelsea 2022 focusing on this theme.
An interesting example of this was “The Core Arts Front Garden Revolution” (pictured), designed by Andy Smith-Williams, where two neighbors removed the boundary between their front yards to create a shared space, reflecting Core Arts’ mission to support mental health and promote social inclusion.
There are ideas for getting little ones out into green space too, such as boulders, sculpted seats and a tippy-toe path in “The Place2Be Securing Tomorrow Garden” by Jamie Butterworth, which focused on children’s emotional well-being.
How to Design a Healing Garden at Home
Color Psychology
A range of shades were on display at the show, from exuberant oranges and magentas to cool blues, mauves and soft pinks. Color was often used to present a mood or emotion, helping those who would use the space to feel either calm or uplifted.
The “Circle of Life” garden by Yoshihiro Tamura contains herbs, wild grasses and vegetables in different colors to represent human emotions. Healing greens, passionate reds and warm yellows combine with whites to signify purity and blacks to highlight everyday troubles and worries.
“The Mothers for Mothers Garden — ‘This Too Shall Pass’” (pictured) by Pollyanna Wilkinson uses a gradual shift of hue in the planting to show the different stages of emotion a mother can feel. Melancholy blues evolve into tranquil peaches and pinks and finally lead through to exhilarating, hopeful magentas and reds.
A range of shades were on display at the show, from exuberant oranges and magentas to cool blues, mauves and soft pinks. Color was often used to present a mood or emotion, helping those who would use the space to feel either calm or uplifted.
The “Circle of Life” garden by Yoshihiro Tamura contains herbs, wild grasses and vegetables in different colors to represent human emotions. Healing greens, passionate reds and warm yellows combine with whites to signify purity and blacks to highlight everyday troubles and worries.
“The Mothers for Mothers Garden — ‘This Too Shall Pass’” (pictured) by Pollyanna Wilkinson uses a gradual shift of hue in the planting to show the different stages of emotion a mother can feel. Melancholy blues evolve into tranquil peaches and pinks and finally lead through to exhilarating, hopeful magentas and reds.
Multitasking Spaces
Many of us want to spend more time in our yards, so it makes sense to create a space where we can move indoor activities outdoors. There were plenty of ideas on display in the “Out of the Shadows” garden by Kate Gould, with its swim spa, climbing bars, yoga space and seating areas.
Or you could build a carbon-neutral backyard cabin like the one pictured here in “A Garden Sanctuary by Hamptons,” designed by Tony Woods.
Browse patio furniture
Many of us want to spend more time in our yards, so it makes sense to create a space where we can move indoor activities outdoors. There were plenty of ideas on display in the “Out of the Shadows” garden by Kate Gould, with its swim spa, climbing bars, yoga space and seating areas.
Or you could build a carbon-neutral backyard cabin like the one pictured here in “A Garden Sanctuary by Hamptons,” designed by Tony Woods.
Browse patio furniture
Light-Touch Gardening
Gone are the days of forcing plants to grow by endlessly watering them or spraying them with pesticides. Instead, the designs at Chelsea this year encouraged visitors to choose plants that will thrive in particular conditions without too much effort on the part of the gardener.
The Brewin Dolphin Garden, designed by Paul Hervey-Brookes, contains plants that deal with the poor soil conditions of homes on brownfield sites. A mix of native and endemic plants are useful for rehabilitating polluted, urban soils and for absorbing CO2 in the air, while low-maintenance, long-flowering shrubs and perennials provide nectar and habitat for pollinators.
The Enchanted Rain Garden (pictured) by Bea Tann is full of container plants that thrive in a rainy climate, with robust textures that hold raindrops and glisten when wet, while the Wild Kitchen Garden by Ann Treneman is planted with easy-to-grow, informal, edible plants and trees. The lesson for our own spaces? Choose plants that will grow easily in the soil and climate in your patch.
Gone are the days of forcing plants to grow by endlessly watering them or spraying them with pesticides. Instead, the designs at Chelsea this year encouraged visitors to choose plants that will thrive in particular conditions without too much effort on the part of the gardener.
The Brewin Dolphin Garden, designed by Paul Hervey-Brookes, contains plants that deal with the poor soil conditions of homes on brownfield sites. A mix of native and endemic plants are useful for rehabilitating polluted, urban soils and for absorbing CO2 in the air, while low-maintenance, long-flowering shrubs and perennials provide nectar and habitat for pollinators.
The Enchanted Rain Garden (pictured) by Bea Tann is full of container plants that thrive in a rainy climate, with robust textures that hold raindrops and glisten when wet, while the Wild Kitchen Garden by Ann Treneman is planted with easy-to-grow, informal, edible plants and trees. The lesson for our own spaces? Choose plants that will grow easily in the soil and climate in your patch.
Urban Nature
There’s plenty of inspiration for city dwellers at Chelsea this year, with designers focusing on ways to bring nature into urban settings. Take inspiration from the Hands Off Mangrove by Grow2Know garden by Tayshan Hayden-Smith and Danny Clarke, which is full of pollinator-friendly and edible plants suited to city gardens.
The Cirrus balcony garden (pictured) was designed by Jason Williams, who has his own 18th-floor balcony garden. He re-created the space for Chelsea to show how you can squeeze wildflowers, perennials, herbs, a vegetable garden and even a fish pond into a small area.
Tell us: What do you think of the designs? Share your thoughts in the Comments.
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There’s plenty of inspiration for city dwellers at Chelsea this year, with designers focusing on ways to bring nature into urban settings. Take inspiration from the Hands Off Mangrove by Grow2Know garden by Tayshan Hayden-Smith and Danny Clarke, which is full of pollinator-friendly and edible plants suited to city gardens.
The Cirrus balcony garden (pictured) was designed by Jason Williams, who has his own 18th-floor balcony garden. He re-created the space for Chelsea to show how you can squeeze wildflowers, perennials, herbs, a vegetable garden and even a fish pond into a small area.
Tell us: What do you think of the designs? Share your thoughts in the Comments.
More on Houzz
Read more garden guides
Find a landscape contractor to help with your project
Shop for outdoor furniture
That small plot of land at the back or front of our homes might seem insignificant, but if we joined all of our yards together, they would take up significant acreage. So it’s good to know that the things we do in our own plots can make a valuable contribution to the environment.
We can take our cue from Joe Swift’s “BBC Studios Our Green Planet and RHS Bee Garden” (pictured), which was designed to encourage people to grow bee-friendly plants, or “The New Blue Peter Garden — Discover Soil” by Juliet Sargeant, which aimed to encourage everyone to look after soil and perhaps make our own compost.
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