This beautiful, gold-medal-winning garden at the Royal Horticultural Society’s 2016 Chelsea Flower Show was designed by Chelsea regular Cleve West. It reflects the garden designer’s experience of living in Exmoor, a moorland area in southwest England, as a teenager. “When I was 14 in 1972, the whole family moved from Thames Ditton [a London suburb] to Porlock in Exmoor to run a hotel,” West says. “It was quite a culture shock, but we had lovely countryside to roam in and escape into. I used to hightail off into the hills, down to the sea, it was just perfect.” The garden is inspired by an area of ancient woodland, but West wanted to evoke the special spot rather than try to faithfully replicate it. “The atmosphere of this place was really powerful, and that stayed with me for such a long time,” he says. “I’m trying to evoke a memory.”
Chris Snook
Garden at a Glance Event: RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2016 Designer: Cleve West Built by: Swatton Landscape Prize: Gold medal
West wanted to create a space that acknowledged his memories of living in Exmoor as a teenager. “We’ve got all the ingredients: oak trees, stone, water and woodland planting,” he says. “The trick was to make it a modern-contemporary garden that evokes Exmoor without it looking like Exmoor.”
Chris Snook
“The amazing thing about Exmoor is the diversity,” West says. “There are rocks, sea views, moorland, combes, valleys, fields.” His garden contains a wealth of planting, stone and wood, to pay homage to this abundant and varied natural landscape.
Chris Snook
A stone and gravel path through a woodland-edge planting leads the visitor beyond stunted oaks and rocks to a smoother path, and an area with a sunken terrace and a pool. An oak boundary frames the garden.
Chris Snook
“Oak trees are key to the whole garden,” West says. “I have also used things like blueberries, but just as a token. I don’t want to try to re-create the wood in a [32-by-72-foot] space!”
Ferns, grasses, hostas, Saxifragas, irises, foxgloves, honeysuckles and several types of geranium all feature too.
Chris Snook
Stone plays a huge part in the garden, and West has used a mix of rough-hewn stone and sawn stone for the paths, retaining walls and benches. “It gives a very contemporary edge to the whole thing,” he says.
Chris Snook
The contrast of smooth, sawn stone — which makes up some of the pathways — and slabs of rough stone feels exciting and original.
Chris Snook
The front of the garden has a rough, stony path. The garden’s lush planting includes a combination of ferns, including Asplenium scolopendrium and Polystichum setiferum; grasses, such as Briza media, Deschampsia flexuosa and Melica altissima ‘Alba’; bulbs, such as Muscari armeniacum and Allium cowanii; and perennial plants, including Euphorbia amygdaloides ‘Purpurea’, Lunaria rediviva and Euphorbia ‘Whistleberry Garnet’ (not all are visible in this shot).
Chris Snook
From the path, visitors arrive at a section of the garden paved with smooth stone. “It’s much more definite, much more finely tuned,” West says. “That represents my career path and when I became more certain about how it was all going to work out. It’s a slightly cheesy metaphor for my journey through life!”
Chris Snook
“The garden is a celebration of the moment, as a teenager on Exmoor, when I became enchanted by landscape,” West says.
Chris Snook
Weathered wood forms the boundary fence and has an aged, rustic quality. It is oak, to echo the stunted oak trees planted here.
Chris Snook
The planting isn’t made up exclusively of native species, even though the garden was inspired by Exmoor. “I didn’t want to re-create Exmoor,” West says. “I couldn’t better it!”
Chris Snook
Small depressions have been cut into some of the rough stone, to create birdbaths.
Chris Snook
West doesn’t have a favorite part of the garden. “It works as a whole. I can’t pinpoint one thing,” he says. “You’ve got the oak trees, the rock and these lovely birdbaths that robins and blackbirds have been coming to drink from.”
Chris Snook
Thalictrum ‘Black Stockings’ (the wispy purple flower), Cirsium atropurpureum ‘Trevor’s Blue Wonder’ (thistle-like) and the beautifully butter-yellow Trollius x cultorum ‘Cheddar’ thrive in this pocket of planting.
Chris Snook
Purples and yellows feature among the abundant greens of this woodland-inspired space.
Chris Snook
West feels this is one of the best gardens he has ever created at Chelsea. “All those memories were infused in this garden in some way, so it carries a level of emotion, which I think makes a good garden,” he says.
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Chris Snook
Garden at a Glance
Chris Snook
“The amazing thing about Exmoor is the diversity,” West says. “There are rocks, sea views, moorland, combes, valleys, fields.” His garden contains a wealth of planting, stone and wood, to pay homage to this abundant and varied natural landscape.
Chris Snook
A stone and gravel path through a woodland-edge planting leads the visitor beyond stunted oaks and rocks to a smoother path, and an area with a sunken terrace and a pool. An oak boundary frames the garden.
Chris Snook
“Oak trees are key to the whole garden,” West says. “I have also used things like blueberries, but just as a token. I don’t want to try to re-create the wood in a [32-by-72-foot] space!”
Chris Snook
Stone plays a huge part in the garden, and West has used a mix of rough-hewn stone and sawn stone for the paths, retaining walls and benches. “It gives a very contemporary edge to the whole thing,” he says.
Chris Snook
The contrast of smooth, sawn stone — which makes up some of the pathways — and slabs of rough stone feels exciting and original.
Chris Snook
The front of the garden has a rough, stony path. The garden’s lush planting includes a combination of ferns, including Asplenium scolopendrium and Polystichum setiferum; grasses, such as Briza media, Deschampsia flexuosa and Melica altissima ‘Alba’; bulbs, such as Muscari armeniacum and Allium cowanii; and perennial plants, including Euphorbia amygdaloides ‘Purpurea’, Lunaria rediviva and Euphorbia ‘Whistleberry Garnet’ (not all are visible in this shot).
Chris Snook
From the path, visitors arrive at a section of the garden paved with smooth stone. “It’s much more definite, much more finely tuned,” West says. “That represents my career path and when I became more certain about how it was all going to work out. It’s a slightly cheesy metaphor for my journey through life!”
Chris Snook
“The garden is a celebration of the moment, as a teenager on Exmoor, when I became enchanted by landscape,” West says.
Chris Snook
Weathered wood forms the boundary fence and has an aged, rustic quality. It is oak, to echo the stunted oak trees planted here.
Chris Snook
The planting isn’t made up exclusively of native species, even though the garden was inspired by Exmoor. “I didn’t want to re-create Exmoor,” West says. “I couldn’t better it!”
Chris Snook
Small depressions have been cut into some of the rough stone, to create birdbaths.
Chris Snook
West doesn’t have a favorite part of the garden. “It works as a whole. I can’t pinpoint one thing,” he says. “You’ve got the oak trees, the rock and these lovely birdbaths that robins and blackbirds have been coming to drink from.”
Chris Snook
Thalictrum ‘Black Stockings’ (the wispy purple flower), Cirsium atropurpureum ‘Trevor’s Blue Wonder’ (thistle-like) and the beautifully butter-yellow Trollius x cultorum ‘Cheddar’ thrive in this pocket of planting.
Chris Snook
Purples and yellows feature among the abundant greens of this woodland-inspired space.
Chris Snook
West feels this is one of the best gardens he has ever created at Chelsea. “All those memories were infused in this garden in some way, so it carries a level of emotion, which I think makes a good garden,” he says.