Garden Tour: A Scandi-style Garden Room With Cottage Garden Planting
This show garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2016 blends contemporary décor with traditional planting to glorious effect
When you hear the phrase “smart garden”, you might think of high-tech gadgets amid contemporary design and sleek landscaping. But this beautiful show garden at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show turned that perception on its head thanks to a clever combination of high tech features – such as being to use your smart device to control the lighting and entertainment – and glorious, cottage-style planting that showed a softer side to contemporary garden design. Take the tour below.
Given the brief by LG Electronics to create a “smart garden”, designer Hay Joung Hwang came up with this beautiful Scandi-style outdoor room set in a pretty, cottage-style garden, with an outdoor dining area under a leafy canopy.
Inspired “by the concept of intelligent homes”, Hwang designed the garden to demonstrate that “technology can be incorporated harmoniously into the garden as well as the house.”
Inspired “by the concept of intelligent homes”, Hwang designed the garden to demonstrate that “technology can be incorporated harmoniously into the garden as well as the house.”
A sheltered outdoor room enclosed on two sides has the feel of an indoor space – albeit one with a spectacular garden view – thanks to decorative details, such as vases and pictures.
It’s no surprise to learn that Hwang originally trained as an interior designer; her design awareness is evident throughout the garden, which functions very much as an extension of an indoor living space.
In the centre of the garden, a contemporary-style pergola gently draped with branches of wisteria reaches over an outdoor dining table, providing dappled shade and light cover.
In the centre of the garden, a contemporary-style pergola gently draped with branches of wisteria reaches over an outdoor dining table, providing dappled shade and light cover.
Hwang wanted the garden to demonstrate the contrasts between formal and informal, as well as the balance between naturalism and the artificial, which she sees as “a metaphor for modern life.”
The planting scheme is restricted to white, pale blue and pale pink throughout for a unified and soft feel. Tall spikes of Eremurus ‘robustus’, Persicaria bistorta ‘Superba’ and Digitalis ‘purpurea alba’ add height with Hesperis matrionalis (pink), and Thalictrum ‘black stockings’ adding the pink and purple tones. Blue tones are brought in by the light blue of the Iris ‘Jane Phillips’ and the sky blue Myosotis ‘Forget me not’.
The dining and seating area both have a pared-back Scandi aesthetic, with stripped wood furniture and a restrained colour palette, while the planting is classic English country garden.
Strips of pale stone flooring interspersed with crisp grey gravel create a stepping stone effect throughout the garden.
Naturalistic cottage-style planting runs throughout the garden, helping to soften the more structural elements of hard landscaping.
Read expert advice on how to create a garden that will attract wildlife
Read expert advice on how to create a garden that will attract wildlife
Tall Digitalis ‘purpurea alba’ surround the outdoor room, providing a soft screen.
See more stylish ways to create privacy in your garden
See more stylish ways to create privacy in your garden
Bleached wood furniture and cosy sheepskin throws offer a restful and snug seating area.
Garden chairs are in natural pale wood, and painted light grey and charcoal; they pick up the Scandi style of the “interior” space while complementing the soft, pastel-coloured planting.
J110 chairs, Hay.
Are you keen to improve your front garden, too? Check out these inspiring ideas
J110 chairs, Hay.
Are you keen to improve your front garden, too? Check out these inspiring ideas
The herbaceous plants were chosen to “add a soft quality”, while multi-stemmed trees were added to “provide privacy and filter the views from the house.”
TELL US…
What do you think of this Chelsea Flower Show garden? Do let us know in the Comments below.
TELL US…
What do you think of this Chelsea Flower Show garden? Do let us know in the Comments below.
Show RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2016
Garden designer Hay Joung Hwang
Built by Randle Siddeley
Sponsored by LG Electronics
Prize awarded Silver Gilt Medal