The RHS invited pupils from Sulivan Primary School in London to work alongside designer Harry Holding to create a garden for the 2024 RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Holding worked with children from one class throughout the whole process, from the garden brief through to incorporating design ideas, selecting plants including visiting nurseries, growing plants for the garden as well as planting on site. As co-designers, the children are very much in the driving seat. Landscape Associates will be managing the build.
The resulting RHS ‘No Adults Allowed Garden’ is a joyful children-only sanctuary where they can play, learn, and explore the natural world around them. The garden represents a fantastical landscape with a woodland, meadow, wetland with heightened colour and oversized bog plants. A natural den is set within a pool of water, with a slide running down into it.
Garden designer Harry Holding says: “I have loved working with the children at Sulivan Primary School to design this garden. They have been so creative and have come up with some brilliant – if somewhat challenging in some cases – ideas. With this garden, art, sculpture, and textural clay celebrate the child-like creativity innate in all of us, while sensory planting and natural materials create a nourishing space. Above all, it’s a celebration of the natural world and the joyous wonder children experience within beautiful landscapes”.
The garden will be relocated to Sulivan Primary School in Fulham after the show, for future generations to enjoy for many years to come. Other schools in the area will also be welcome to visit and use the garden.