Wild garden better for mental health, says show designer
MESSY, wild-looking gardens are better for mental health than pristine pruning, a leading gardening figure has claimed after exhibiting at the Chelsea Flower Show.
Matt Keightley, who designed the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Feel Good garden, said that for mental health, gardens should be natural and untidy, and that perfect geometric shapes can be stressful.
The garden was commissioned by the RHS and, after the show, it will be donated to Camden and Islington Mental Health Trust. The show winner was first-timer Chris Beardshaw, whose Morgan Stanley garden for the NSPCC was described by critics as “straightforward” with “much simpler planting”.