For the many garden and plant lovers among us, there is nothing quite like visiting the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London for absorbing the very latest in gardening trends and innovations. It is also, of course, breathtakingly beautiful, and every year I come away feeling completely consumed by the new planting combinations and landscaping ideas I’ve seen, eager to recreate them in my own backyard.
An overarching theme at this year’s show was the impact a garden can have on our wellbeing. Whether to help with recovery from or living with an illness, or with mental conditions. The Forest Bathing garden, designed by Ula Maria for sufferers of muscular dystrophy and winner of the 'Best Show Garden' award, is a superb and impressive example of this. It was designed as a place of solace and refuge, inspired by a birch grove and underplanted with woodland shrubs such as Melica altissima ‘Alba’ grass, and Geranium sylvaticum ‘Mayflower’. The garden is a humbling reminder to us all of the restorative and hopeful power that plants and gardens hold.
