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Flood Resilient Garden relocated to public park in Oxfordshire

Flood Re: The Flood Resilient Garden, inspired visitors at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 2024 and has now been relocated to a business park and community hub near Wallingford

The reimagined Flood Resilient Garden at Howbery Business Park, has been designed by Dr Ed Barsley, with landscaping and planting by Belderbos Landscapes. The original garden featured at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 2024 and was designed in collaboration with designer Naomi Slade. The new space demonstrates how thoughtful garden design can combine beauty with purpose. Created to address the growing need for flood mitigation in the UK, where one in four homes is at risk, the garden offers a practical and inspiring model for resilient outdoor spaces.

© Andrea Jones
A stunning setting to visit the relocated garden that is open to the public at Howbery Park

With this garden, we wanted to demonstrate that flood resilient design needn’t be a compromise, you can create spaces that are both beautiful and enriching, whatever the weather.

Dr Ed Barsley, The Environmental Design Studio
Supported by Flood Re, a joint initiative between the UK government and the insurance industry, the garden championed the Build Back Better scheme, launched in 2022, which enabled eligible homeowners to access up to £10,000 for flood resilience measures. 

Designer Dr Ed Barsley said, “The original garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show was a magical, if fleeting, moment. In reimagining it for a permanent setting, we’ve worked hard to ensure it can endure and thrive for decades to come. I’m delighted it now has a lasting home, one that offers education, enhances biodiversity, helps manage flood risk, and offers a calm, reflective space for all who visit.”

The garden shows how small changes to outdoor spaces alongside internal adaptations like raised sockets, tiled floors and specialist plaster, can help reduce the impact of flooding and support faster recovery. These measures form a vital first line of defence, helping homes stand stronger against future events.

© Andrea Jones
The Flood Resilient Garden looking beautiful and working hard in its new home in Oxfordshire
Designed to work with water rather than against it, the garden features clever solutions such as a pond that doubles as a sump, slowly releasing excess water, and a smart rainwater tank that can be drained remotely ahead of heavy rainfall. These features help manage surface water while enhancing the garden’s character.

Planting has been carefully selected to thrive in varied conditions, with a mix of wildflower meadow, edible crops and shade-tolerant species. Water-loving plants such as Baldellia ranunculoides, Caltha palustris, Silene flos-cuculi, Rodgersia and Juncus ensifolius add texture and seasonal interest, while supporting biodiversity.

This garden demonstrates how thoughtful choices in plants and landscape design can offer both aesthetic value and tangible protection – helping to minimise physical damage and emotional strain when floods occur.

Kelly Ostler-Coyle, Director of Corporate Affairs, Flood Re
 “We’re thrilled that the flood resilient garden now has a permanent home, open and accessible to the wider public. Outdoor spaces like this are vital in providing a natural first line of defence against flooding. If flood-resistant features and built-in water storage were adopted across communities, the collective benefit would be transformative,” Kelly Ostler-Coyle, Director of Corporate Affairs, Flood Re.

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Managing water in your garden

Managing water in your garden

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