Awards announced at RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival 2022

Gardens created for a disabled children’s charity; to raise awareness for the conflict in Ukraine and a planting starter kit for home-workers have won awards on the opening day of the 2022 RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival.

The prestigious Best Show Garden was awarded to Over The Wall by Matthew Childs Design, a conceptual garden space to highlight the inspiring work of the Over The Wall charity which supports children living with rare and serious illness or disability. The team also received the Best Show Garden Construction award with contractors Yoreland Design, as well as winning a Gold Medal. The garden’s colourful planting features annuals and perennials that symbolise the colours of the charity's ‘Brilliance Beads’ given to children to raise their confidence, along with character pine trees and shrubs that give a contemporary Japanese aesthetic in reference to the garden’s sponsor Takeda.

A garden symbolising the on-going conflict in Ukraine and reflecting the country’s culture and tradition won in the Global Impact category. What Does Not Burn created by Ukrainian designer Victoria Maynolo and Netherlands based Carrie Preston, features a burnt-out structure that represents a typical Ukrainian cottage, set within a field of barley interspersed with field weeds and fruit trees. The walls, windows and doors of the building have been burnt away and replaced by rushnyks, a ceremonial Ukrainian embroidered cloth.

The Get Started category aims to encourage and inspire people of all ages to start gardening, whatever their physical or mental ability, budget or space, with an emphasis on showcasing reliable, affordable and easy to look after planting. As more employees work from home, gardens have become a valuable haven for physical and mental wellbeing during a busy day. Inspired Earth Design’s Lunch Break Garden is a simple approach to planting with only eight varieties of herbaceous perennial making the often overwhelming choice of what to plant more achievable. Created by partners Emily Grayshaw, Imogen Perreau and Jude Yeo, the garden draws on their experiences of working from home during the pandemic and recognising the therapeutic benefits that gardening offers. The designers also achieved one of only two Gold medals awarded by the judges.