Exhibitors
Show gardens
The Royal Hospital, Chelsea
The Ecover Chelsea Pensioners' Garden
Designer: Julian Dowle
Sponsor: Ecover
Click here to view a panorama of this garden.
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Set in 1945, this garden commemorates the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. Chelsea Pensioners, who live at the Royal Hospital and fought in this war, contributed ideas for the garden. The result is a nostalgic vision of ‘Blighty’, recreating a soldier’s dream of home. The garden incorporates welcome home bunting, a ‘Dig for Victory’ vegetable garden and a traditional English pub.
A patch of old turf has been lifted from the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea to form the basis of a wildflower meadow with dandelions, buttercups and scabious. The village duck pond (without ducks) has very lush marginal planting, which provides a natural watering hole.
The vegetable production for the garden has been grown entirely by the Royal Hospital Chelsea, whose green-fingered Pensioners worked from a 1939 catalogue using all the old cultivars to grow the nutritious vegetables that were used to feed the nation. Peas, broad beans, Savoy cabbages and swedes have been grown in troughs to create ready made rows in the garden.
An old and dying hawthorn, chosen for its enormous character has been selected from the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea and forms part of the mature garden.
The Ecover Chelsea Pensioners’ Garden is Julian Dowle’s 26th garden at the Chelsea Flower Show, following a remarkable record of 10 RHS Gold Medals, 10 Silver-Gilts and five Silvers.
