My top five Chelsea gardens

The Garden editor, Chris Young, selects his five favourite show gardens & explains why he likes them.

The Brewin Dolphin Garden

The success of this garden lies in the balance between the planting, hard landscaping and spaces, from the yew topiary and rustic steel gates to the substantially pleached limes.

The end result is a garden that has exquisite detailing in terms of plant combinations as well as bold statements such as a lime stone wall sculpture.

Rooftop Workplace of Tomorrow

As most of us spend a considerable amount of time at the workplace than home, this garden offers an antidote to static, boring, soulless office gardens. By not only providing areas to relax and work in, the designer has chosen a cool silver, green and white planting palettes.

The curved theme continues throughout the garden, in the bamboo decking, plastic planters made of grade A recyclable plastic and water rill edging created from compressed paper and resin.

The M&G Garden

A great example of truly integrating physical pieces of art work in with an overall garden design. A circle motif runs throughout the garden from mounds of Ilex crenata to the curving copper sculpture then onto the circles in the Purbeck stone.

Quiet Time: DMZ Forbidden Garden

This may not be the showiest garden for colour or dramatic effect, but its meaning and story behind it are hugely compelling.

The contrast of a demilitarized zone with the beauty of the pristine planting makes for an especially poignant show garden.

A Celebration of Caravanning

The soft planting of pinks, blues and whites, complimented by the tall conical-shaped Betula, flow around the wooden screens and benches. The Viburnum plicatum 'Mariesii' around the garden add an intermediary height between the herbaceous plants and trees.