BBC Radio 2 has unveiled five Feel Good Gardens it will host at the
year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show – one of which will feature the tastiest
plants chosen by Mary Berry.
The gardens will aim to uplift the senses and encourage people to lose themselves amongst a feast of sights, scents, sounds, flavours and textures to make them feel happier, calmer and generally better about the world.
The five gardens will show how plants can enrich and indulge one of the five senses – touch, taste, smell, sight and sound.
The five BBC Radio 2 Feel Good Gardens are:
- The Chris Evans Taste Garden (pictured) is designed by Jon Wheatley, who has asked friend of the Radio 2 breakfast show, Mary Berry, to help celebrate the tastiest plants growing in UK gardens, by growers on allotments and in many communities. Plants that excite and stimulate your palate and enhance your lifestyle and health and well-being feature in this garden.
- The Jo Whiley Scent Garden is designed by Tamara Bridge, 2015 RHS Young Designer of the Year, and Kate Savill. Tamara and Kate have asked fragrance designer Jo Malone to help create the garden, which will include aromas that transport you to a time or place such as woodland walks, rain on warm paving, fresh earth and new leaf growth, or freshly cut flowers from the garden. Both Jo Malone and Jo Whiley will visit the show in the build to help with planting.
- The Anneka Rice Colour Cutting Garden is designed by Sarah Raven. Every square inch of space will give you flowers, flowers and more flowers. Sarah Raven has enlisted the help of one of the UK’s best known interior designers, Tricia Guild OBE, as they share a passion for colour and Tricia is renowned for the use of colour in her designs. It is a profusion of colour that will be an amazing sight and concentrates on plants that cut and come out again. Gold, the colour for 50th Wedding Anniversaries, features in this garden to celebrate 50 years of Radio 2.
- The Jeremy Vine Texture Garden is designed by Matt Keightley and is an immersive tactile garden that features bold geometric forms juxtaposed with a soft and elegant planting pallet. Varying material finishes and planting structure seemingly evolves through the space to create a garden people want to interact and relax in.
- The Zoe Ball Listening Garden, designed by James Alexander-Sinclair aims to reproduce the feeling when you stand too close to a speaker stack at a concert; the sensation of feeling music through your whole body. Whilst you can’t hear the sound of music at the garden, it will be visible in water patterns in water features and felt through the floor. The music will be from the last 50 years of Radio 2.
The BBC Radio 2 Feel Good Gardens are half the size of the big Show Gardens and will have the backdrop of the Royal Hospital Chelsea.
