The BBC Gardeners’ World Beautiful Borders category consists of compact 3m2 miniature show gardens, aimed to instil inspiration and achievable ideas for smaller gardens and challenging spaces. This year’s Beautiful Border theme at the BBC Gardeners’ World Autumn Fair was ‘Share My Space’, highlighting the power of gardening to create a sense of community.
Of the nine selected designs at last weekend’s show, the winning Border, The Daisy Chain, was inspired by Amy Drewitt‘s thoughts on how a family shares a garden space. Designed to connect all generations of a family through exploration, nature and play, the border featured soft planting and sensory elements, pool with a solar fountain, buried trampoline, tree-hanging bells and birch tree trunk seating.
Drewitt, who is studying with the British Academy of Garden Design, said: “I wanted this space to feel inviting rather than somewhere children would be told to stay off the lawn or away from the plants. I’m blown away by winning this award and really can’t believe it’s happened. Creating a Beautiful Border for the BBC Gardeners’ World Autumn Fair has been an amazing experience and I’ve learnt so much from everyone involved.”
The Autumn Fair’s Beautiful Borders assessors included; gardening editor, horticulturalist and journalist, Ian Hodgson, and award-winning garden designers, Pip Probert from BBC Two’s Your Garden Made Perfect and Outer Spaces Landscaping & Design, and Mike Baldwin, landscape and horticulture lecturer at Derby College.
Chair of assessors, Ian Hodgson, said: “Amy Drewitt’s The Daisy Chain is such a fun garden, we could really imagine children enjoying the trampoline and stepping stones. It is more than a garden, it’s a living space.”
Best Interpretation of the Theme was awarded to Chelmsford horticulturalist, Zoe Defoe, for her Border, Talk in Space. The design highlights the mental health and therapeutic benefits of sharing space and conversation, surrounded by nature, and features a central firepit with Phormium ‘flames’ surrounded by log seats, mounted planets and dry planting. Defoe lives with Addison’s disease, a rare adrenal disorder, and will use the garden to raise awareness and funds for the Addison’s Disease Self Help Group charity which supports people living with the disorder.
Defoe said: “I’ve loved building the Border and it feels amazing to have won this award. I’m so excited that my interpretation of the theme was appreciated by the assessors. My Border is a space for people to sit together and talk which represents what the Addison’s Disease Self Help Group does.”
Rachel Poletti-Gadd, Portfolio Director – Gardening Division at Immediate Live, organisers of the BBC Gardeners’ World Autumn Fair, said: “The Beautiful Borders never fail to impress and always inspire visitors with their creativity. We’ve been thrilled at the number and quality of entries this year. Each designer brought their own individual vision of the Share My Space theme to life which gave the assessors a very tough job. Our congratulations to Amy and Zoe for their fantastic Borders which we know will spark new ideas for Autumn Fair visitors.”
The BBC Gardeners’ World Autumn Fair was held in association with English Heritage, and took place at Audley End House and Gardens.