A first for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, Monty Don has called on Ned to help create pathways through the RHS and BBC Radio2 Dog Garden.
Hinting at inspiration from La Moraleja by Alvaro Sampedro in Madrid, which Don visited during his Spanish Gardens series, the move ensures that dogs are integral to the design of the garden. At La Moraleja, Sampedro intriguingly allowed the garden to evolve continuously, creating paths where the dogs chose to meander. Ned’s charming involvement in the RHS Chelsea garden highlights the symbiotic relationship between dogs and gardens.
The RHS and BBC Radio 2 Dog Garden is the first garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show to be designed by Don, whose deep affection for dogs is widely known. He is creating the garden with the team at Form Plants, led by Plant Expert and Horticulturist Jamie Butterworth. Don wants the garden to be both an exemplar of all the things that dogs love, regardless of horticultural fashion and a beautiful space that any dog owner would love.
Butterworth, who is creating the garden explained that Ned randomly ran through pots and plants, creating the paths that will feature in the Garden. “To keep the garden as authentic as possible, Monty enlisted the help of Ned to design the paths that intersect through the planting. Ned followed his nose and forged the routes that we will now copy at the Show. We had imagined that Ned would create sweeps and curves through the planting, or at least that is what we had designed. However, every time he ran off, he returned to Monty via the same route, and as such we have changed the designs accordingly. So Ned actually designed not just part of the garden, but possibly the most detailed and complex aspect,” he explained.
Clare Matterson, RHS Director General, added: “We feel very lucky to have one of the nation’s best loved gardeners and one of the nation’s best loved dogs designing our RHS and Radio 2 Dog Garden at RHS Chelsea this year! As a nation of gardeners and nation of dog lovers we hope this garden makes people smile both when they hear about it and when they see it. With everything going on in the world today we wanted our garden at RHS Chelsea this year to be really uplifting and bring some much needed joy to everyone.”
