National Autistic Society Garden at RHS Chelsea
National Autistic Society Ambassador, Chris Packham, and the charity’s President, Jane Asher, visited our show garden at RHS Chelsea.
National Autistic Society Ambassador Chris Packham, said: “The garden is very beautiful. The theme that the architects and gardeners have worked with is masking, which is something that many autistic people do to get by in society. We mimic the behaviours of other people so we can fit in more easily. But it does come at a terrible cost because it requires so much energy to do that, it can be exhausting.
“The task for the garden designers has been to express this in a way that is comprehensible and comforting. On the outside, there are lots of flowers, it’s quite bright and it’s open and that’s part of life where we have to exist, but it can be quite challenging. But then behind the garden’s cork screens, which reduce the sound, they’ve created an inner area, which represents when the mask is off. This is the real us. It’s about greenery, it’s lush, it’s about structure, it’s about texture, form. I find it very comfortable. I love this space. This encapsulates where I do feel comfortable, enclosed in soft green woodland and where the smells and the sounds are reduced. This is where the mask can come off and I can be an authentic autistic person.
“That’s the underlying mission of the National Autistic Society - to ask society to be more welcoming and more understanding so it can be a space where autistic people can prosper and succeed in life and where opportunities are equally available to them.”
About the garden
The National Autistic Society Garden, themed around autism and masking, is at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show from 21 - 25 May 2024. The garden has been created by co-designers Sophie Parmenter and Dido Milne (CSK Architects), and is sponsored by Project Giving Back, a charity that provides funding for ‘gardens for good causes’ at Chelsea.
The National Autistic Society Garden seeks to represent autistic masking and how some autistic people experience this in different parts of their lives. Walls or ‘masks’ of timber and cork create a series of spaces dedicated to different types of social interaction. There is a large, covered space for family or friends, an intimate corner for a quiet conversation with a partner or for sitting by yourself and a more formal space for colleagues. A mesmerising kinetic sculpture alludes to the mind’s beauty and complexity. These three outer spaces surround the heart of the garden, a sheltered and mossy dell that embodies the space of the inner mind.
The theme: masking
The central space is separated from the outer spaces by cork screens, which represent an aspect of the autistic experience known as masking. Masking is a strategy used by some autistic people, consciously or unconsciously, to appear non-autistic in order to fit in and be accepted in society. However, masking can come at a great cost for autistic people because it relies on suppressing natural behaviours and instincts, needs, preferences and coping mechanisms, which can result in exhaustion, mental health difficulties, a loss of sense of self and low self-esteem. It is important for society to become more accepting of autistic ways of being so that the pressure to mask is reduced.