BALI designers, contractors and affiliate (supplier) members are celebrating today after winning medals and ‘Best Garden’ awards at this year’s RHS Flower Show Tatton Park.
BALI Registered Contractor Greenbelt Landscapes, who designed and built the BALI garden at last year’s show winning Silver-Gilt for the association, this year achieved Gold and the Best Back to Back Garden accolade for ‘A Quiet Corner’. Designed by Sarah Jarman and Anna Murphy, the striking design features a curved swathe of grasses that follow a cobbled path to an enclosed seating area. The design, which has been expertly executed by the contractor, invites the visitor to escape the hustle and bustle of busy life and take time to pause and enjoy the surroundings.
‘Reflecting Photonics’, a garden in the Year of Light category designed by BALI Registered Designer Helen Elks-Smith and co-designer Kate Hart, and built by BALI Registered Contractor Turf ‘n’ Earth, also won Gold. This conceptual garden reflects the world-leading research into light-transmitting optical fibre and is sponsored by the University of Southampton Optoelectronics Research Centre. BALI Affiliates CED Stone, SureSet UK and Barcham Trees were amongst the product sponsors.
The Best Year of Light Garden accolade went to Gold winner ‘Light Catcher’, a garden sponsored by BALI Affiliate Marshalls Paving. The garden harnesses natural daylight to create drama and ambience by using materials chosen for their reflective, diffusive and fluctuating qualities to create a contemplative and soothing space.
In the Show Garden category, BALI Registered Contractor Dreamscape Gardens achieved Silver-Gilt for their garden ‘Aurora Arbour’. Designed by Dreamscape’s Daniel Newby with Rob Glass, this contemporary garden and part conceptual design offers a space for reflection as well as a visual feast, and is inspired by the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights. Featuring vibrant planting to dramatic effect during the day and a tree house with solar panels that provide energy to illuminate the garden at night, this garden takes on the guise of an art installation.
Also achieving Silver-Gilt, and sponsored by BALI Affiliate CED Stone, is the ‘Black Pepper’ garden in the Back to Back Garden category. The garden depicts urbanisation encroaching into the rural habitats of the northwest of England. The characteristic Manchester red brick pathways cut through the planting to a seating area and pergola. The garden takes its name from the black-peppered moth that had to evolve due to the pollution caused by the Industrial Revolution. A scorched wood pergola represents the soot-covered trees.
Sponsored by BALI Affiliate Bradstone ‘The Cloud Nine Kitchen Garden’ won Silver. The design shows how small contemporary spaces can be used to improve biodiversity as well as providing food for the table. The garden contains features that harvest rainwater, and succulent planting traps provide permeability and water conservation and filtration.
Commenting at the show, BALI Chief Executive Wayne Grills said: “This is a great result for BALI members, topping off a year of show successes. Our designers and contractors have been well represented at Tatton this year, as, too, have our affiliate members whose products have been widely used in many of the gardens. My sincere congratulations to all our BALI winners, including Perennial on their wonderful achievement of a Gold and Best Show Garden accolade for the Perennial Legacy Garden, sponsored by BALI Registered Contractor Glendale. BALI is certainly on the map in the North West this summer.”
