The Cricket Pavilion Garden

The garden

A traditional cricket pavilion façade sits behind a beautifully tended lawn, surrounded by colourful planting. The reference is to the cricket ground at Old Heathfield, a picturesque village in East Sussex where the designer lives. Here, Young at Heart regularly brings together older people and visiting schoolchildren through activities such as gardening, plant propagation and willow sculpture. As the venue is underused by athletes during the week, the space has become a valued community hub that offers companionship and teaches new skills.

The garden reflects different aspects of the work carried out by Young at Heart. The plants along the lawn have been sown or propagated from cuttings taken during gardening sessions at the local cricket pavilion. Nearby, two willow sculptures represent a batsman and a woman with a child on a bench, the latter inspired by a real-life scene of a Young at Heart client listening to a schoolgirl read.

Key plants:

• Nepeta racemosa ‘Walker's Low’

• Penstemons

• Achilleas

• Cosmos

• Salvias

The designer – Stephen Moody

Stephen worked on his first RHS Show at Chelsea in 1978 as an apprentice for Rochfords. He has worked in horticulture ever since and is a familiar figure at RHS Chelsea and RHS Hampton Court as an award-winning landscape contractor.

Stephen has been closely involved with Young at Heart for the last two years, running the weekly horticultural activities for its elderly clients and visiting school children. He has been growing-on and nurturing thousands of seedlings and cuttings planted by Young at Heart during their gardening sessions at Old Heathfield Cricket Ground in East Sussex. These plants will form much of the planting for The Cricket Pavilion Garden at RHS Badminton.

About the sponsor – Alitex

The sponsors said, ‘In late 2025 we were approached by a customer who had been involved with the charity Young at Heart, explaining that they were attending RHS Badminton with a show garden to highlight their work and would we be interested in supporting them. After a visit early in 2026 to Heathfield cricket club to see the charity in action and meeting the energy of Rachel Gibson and Steve from Frogheath we were in! As a new show in the RHS calendar we are interested in seeing RHS Badminton, and this presented a lovely opportunity to explore the show. If we can help them to get even one more cricket club to set this up, it will be a great result, but hopefully this will stimulate plenty of interest.’

The garden legacy

After the show, the plants will be re-used in gardens and community spaces around East Sussex. The pavilion façade is being re-used at a location in Burwash, East Sussex.