Featured Show Gardens
Fleming’s and Trailfinder’s Australian Garden presented by Melbourne, Victoria
Garden in the Silver Moonlight
Awards
This garden was awarded
Silver Gilt
Leeds City Council, Parks and Countryside
The Largest Room in the House
Designer: Denise Preston
Contractor: Leeds City Council, Parks and Countryside
Sponsors: GMI Property Company, The Royal British Legion, Toc H
Plant ListThe Largest Room in the House celebrates the 90th anniversary of the end of the Great War and takes its inspiration from the garden at Talbot House at Poperinghe near Ypres in Belgium. Known as ‘the largest room in the house’ the garden at Talbot provided an oasis of peace and calm where soldiers were able to grab some much needed rest and relaxation between periods in the trenches.
The garden is a cameo of Talbot House and is designed to contain the main features of the original and, importantly, to capture its essential atmosphere. The textures, scent and colour of the planting palette have been chosen to give a sense of comfort, peace and serenity, using pastel shades in the central area, with the outer beds taking on slightly stronger tones.
Materials have been chosen to represent the simplicity of the features at Talbot House and are typical of those in place during the Great War. A raised area accommodates a replica of the wooden summer house that still exists in the garden at Talbot House.