Monty Don: Chelsea winner is a beauty, but is it a garden?

IT MAY have won best show garden at Chelsea, but Monty Don has questioned whether Rewilding Britain’s beaverthemed exhibit was a “real garden”.

The installation, by first-time Chelsea exhibitors Adam Hunt and Lulu Urquhart, was an unexpected winner of the top prize on Tuesday, beating long-time show garden designers including Andy Sturgeon and Sarah Eberle.

The garden was given full marks, the same as Sturgeon’s more traditional mental health-themed “Mind Garden”, and the panel of judges then voted for their favourite.

The decision has divided audiences, including Don, pictured, and Joe Swift, presenters of the BBC’S Gardeners’ World. Don said: “I think they’re both fantastic. The question it raises to me – ‘Rewilding Britain’ was beautifully done – was it a garden? It is a show garden and therefore has a right to win, whether it is a real garden or not, I’m not sure.” Swift added: “Andy Sturgeon’s is a beautiful garden. The other one – to me it’s a landscape, a re-creation. But just bringing it to Chelsea, to me, turns it into a garden … maybe they should have a garden category and a landscape category.” Rewilding Britain’s entry showcased a landscape created by beavers, including a dam, a meadow and Neolithic timber walkways. The designers made the unorthodox choice of allowing flowers to “go over” and to exhibit dead foliage.

James Alexander-sinclair, chairman of the judges, said the garden “hit the heartstrings” of the judges.

He said: “It has a certain zeitgeist. Gardening is not immune to fashion, and rewilding is what people are talking about. People were looking forward to this garden, they were excited about the idea of this garden, and it did not disappoint.”