RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2008: Live coverageRHS Website

The Marshalls Garden That Kids Really Want!

The Marshalls Garden That Kids Really Want!

Carol Klein:  The show’s sponsors Marshalls Plc have a garden that kids really want.  Designed as an exciting, organic playground it aims to encourage children to go outside and play.  With a skimming pool, tunnels to climb through and a  28 metre long serpent, getting them out of the garden could be more of a problem.

Ian Dexter:  The inspiration behind the garden was to produce a setting for children that really fires the imagination.  An area that they can really be interactive amongst.  I’ve tried to use visually stimulating plants, also plants that are very tactile, very touchy feely.  Towards the back of the garden we’ve got a large timber oar which has got an elevated deck.  There’s a climbing  structure though it so obviously that’s brilliant for play activuity.  I’ve got an enormous snake that sort of winds its way though the garden that links certain areas and sort of raises up through grass and obviously that’s fantastic, creates, you know, a certain mood.  The whole garden it really relied upon a sense of danger and risk which I think is important for children.  I really wanted the garden to be an area where they could explore and a sense of adventure and a challenging space for them.  The whole sort of focus of the design was to give an opportunity for children to sort of come away from game consoles and Playstations and re-engage into the great outdoors.  So to deliver a garden that really has that sort of interactivity and you know that’s really what we’ve tried to achieve here.