The RHS Chelsea Flower Show is the gold standard for garden design, and this year the M&G Garden, designed by Jo Thompson, created a real buzz among show visitors. It was designed as a quintessentially British restorative retreat, a place where visitors could unwind, relax and be transported to a calmer place. Walking into the garden certainly felt like entering a lush and magical hideaway, with romantic plantings, a natural swimming pond and a fairy-tale cabin creating an oasis of calm away from the hubbub of the show. The garden was awarded a silver-gilt medal by the RHS judges. Take a look around.

More on the 2015 Chelsea Flower Show: Award-Winning Gardens | A Jewel-Colored, Wildlife-Friendly Garden | Great Outdoor Living Ideas | Great Garden Ideas Photos by Victoria Harrison

Garden at a Glance
Garden: The M&G Garden
Designer: Jo Thompson
Location: RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2015
That’s interesting: The garden has a natural swimming pond running through it that hosted a synchronized swimming display on the opening day of the show.

Nestled in a glade of trees in the heart of the garden is an oak-framed writer’s cabin, offering a magical escape for quiet contemplation and uninterrupted writing. The two-story building was designed as a hideaway and was inspired by famous writer’s retreats, in particular the writing room of poet Vita Sackville-West at Sissinghurst Castle. Framed by trees including Japanese maples (Acer japonicum ‘Aconitifolium’, Acer palmatum and Acer palmatum ‘Osakazuki’), river birch (Betula nigra) and alder (Alnus cordata), the writing room is accessed via a rustic wooden ladder. A little circular window offers lofty views of the garden from inside. The pitched roof and stone and wood pillars reference architectural features common to Kent and the East Sussex countryside, where the designer lives.

Including such a large structure in a show garden was a feat of organization and planning. It was too large to be delivered to the show in one piece, so it was constructed off-site, broken down into pieces and then reassembled on the Chelsea showground in the days before the event opened. A screen of trees and rich hedgerow, along with lush ground plantings, such as large, leafy hosta (Hosta ‘Empress Wu’), creates a dense backdrop of greenery. Soft cottage-garden plants stand out against this, with scarlet plume thistle (Cirsium rivulare ‘Atropurpureum’), pale pink foxglove (Digitalis purpurea f. albiflora and Digitalis purpurea ‘Sutton’s Apricot’) and soft blue catmint (Nepeta racemosa ‘Walker’s Low’) working together to create a relaxed, cottage-y feel. The natural swimming pond winds its way though the garden and in front of the cabin, edged all along with water-loving plants and accessed via a wooden walkway. On the opening day of the Chelsea Flower Show, a trio of synchronized swimmers performed a routine in the pond.

As well as entertaining the crowds, this unexpected performance proved that, although it’s compact, the pool can work as an actual, functioning swimming space. The cool, inky water is kept clean naturally and requires no chemicals.

Natural Swimming Pools: More Beauty, No Chemicals A gravity-defying sculpture at the end of the swimming pond creates a striking focal point in the garden. Made of Purbeck stone, as a nod to the designer’s childhood in Dorset, it has the look of a traditional stone wall with a contemporary twist (literally), as it curls around on itself in a soft shape reminiscent of a snail shell or fossil. Tucked underneath the writing room, sheltered from the elements, an open deck area has two comfy chairs to offer a peaceful spot in which to sit and look out over the garden. On warm days the edge of this deck would provide the perfect place to perch and trail hot and tired feet in the cool swimming pond below. A sunken seating area tucked away at the end of the garden provides another sheltered area with a soft, romantic feel, thanks to tumbling roses, peonies and cottage-garden plants. Deliberately positioned in a sunny spot, it has warm stone and honey-colored gravel and an almost Mediterranean feel, perfect for soaking up the rays on balmy summer days.

More on the 2015 Chelsea Flower Show: Award-Winning Gardens | A Jewel-Colored, Wildlife-Friendly Garden | Great Outdoor Living Ideas | Great Garden Ideas