Artisan Gardens at the 100th Chelsea Flower Show!

Herbert Smith Freehills Garden for WaterAid

Le Jardin De Yorkshire

Walker's Pine Cottage Garden

Un Garreg (One Stone)

The Brothers Rich

What will we leave?  NSPCC Garden of Magical Childhood

Motor Neurone Disease--A Hebridean Weaver's Garden

An Alcove (Tokonoma) Garden

Get Well Soon

The Artisan Gardens at the Chelsea Flower Show were some of my favorites this year.  They are the small intimate gardens full of plants and character.  Some have a very powerful meaning and others are very whimsical.

The Herbert Smith Freehills Garden for WaterAid was inspired by the work of the charity WaterAid in India.  It reflects the transformation that clean water provides a community in improving hygiene and sanitation.

The second garden is the Le Jardin De Yorkshire and gives a nod to Yorkshire's successful bid to host the Grand Depart of the 2014 Tour de France.  Loved the sheep made from wire.  It looks like the Olympic rings, but they are actually bicycle rims colored in the French flag.  Everything has a meaning.

Walker's Pine Cottage Garden features a front garden with topiary pines, one of the owner's main interests.  It also has a wall-mounted sculpture celebrating 100 years of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.  I loved this interpretation of a cottage garden.

Un Garreg (One Stone) was designed by Harry and David Rich signaling the growing separation between man and the natural world.  It was crafted from a one single stone.  Just a brilliant piece of gardening skill and boys are cute as well.  Click the link and you will have a short video about the garden from YouTube and Better Homes and Gardens.

What will we leave?  NSPCC Garden of Magical Childhood depicts a traditional children's tea party taking place under a tree house surrounded by natural plantings.  This garden has been designed to reflect on the preciousness and potential of childhood and the legacy to be left for children.

The Motor Neurone Disease--A Hebridean Weaver's Garden is set in the 1950's and is based on a traditional blackhouse on Lewis in the Outer Hebrides.  The remoteness and bleakness of the island are reflected in the design.  The weaver living here weaves Harris Tweed cloth from natural dyes from the plants in the garden.  The cloth is protected by the Harris Tweed Authority.  It was a beautifully executed garden.

An Alcove (Tokonoma) Garden was named Best Artisan Garden and in my photo you can see the designer, Kazuyuki Ishihara with his award.  It was RHS Member's Day and he was showing off.  He was delighted to say the least!  Just a beautifully designed and executed garden.  Very intimate but had so many great elements.

And last but not least is the Get Well Soon garden designed by the National Botanic Garden of Wales.  The link will take you to Wales Online where you will meet the designers and they describe what it took to put this beautiful garden together.  In the catalog of the show it states that this garden "illustrates the many ways in which a garden and its plants can improve your health, through ancient, traditional, modern and alternative forms of medicine."  This was the other favorite of mine of the artisan gardens.

Overall these eight gardens were among my favorites in the entire show.  These designers were on top of their games when designing and executing their visions.  Truly inspiring and amazing.  Take a minute to jump over to the Mother Earth Living blog site for my latest post on my Adventures at the 100th RHS Chelsea Flower Show, Part 1 and my brief visit with Jekka McVicar.  So you know there will be a Part 2 shortly!  I will continue to post some more posts from the flower show in the coming days.

We have the ickies and stickies back in the 'Burgh.  Hope you are ready for the 4th.  Hope you have a safe and happy one.  Talk to you later.