Even an All About Plants garden takes a lot of building
We were lucky enough to work with real experts, who made sure that the Plant Heritage Missing Collector Garden came together beautifully. The hard work started many months before the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and involved some amazing craftspeople.
The Planting Design Collective's William Murray with Rupert Crowton of Crowton Rowarth Ltd
Gareth Wilson of GK Wilson and stonemason Adam Burford
Rupert Crowton and his Crowton Rowarth team are landscaping professionals, who brought our garden designers' ideas to life. Rupert's dad Andy even lent his garden for the prebuild. They worked with landscaping and business consultant Gareth Wilson. We also got help from Jewson and On The Tools.
The pillars of books representing the knowledge held by National Collection holders and the museum style stone drawers were crafted by stonemason Adam Burford with incredible skill and care, including stone dovetail joints. The Cheshire sandstone was sourced from Blackham Reclamation in Tattenhall.
A full grown chair
The Full Grown Orchard
Full Grown
Bronze cast of the original Gatti chair
Dan Fontanelli
One of the key features on the garden was an intriguing looking chair, which was a bronze cast of the Full Grown Gatti Chair. Gavin and Alice Munro of Full Grown have been experimenting with growing trees into the shapes of chairs for over 20 years, trialling techniques and working out how to grow willow into functional furniture.
This chair was their first “sittable” prototype entitled The Gatti Chair. They named it after Laura Gatti, the agronomist for the Bosco Verticale in Milan. This bronze cast of the original chair was generously loaned to the garden by the Sarah Myerscough Gallery. Find out more here.
Gavin and Alice Munro of Full Grown
Kim Lightbody
Materials for the garden
Sally and Will of the Planting Design Collective at Grosvenor Timberworks
Learning about peat free with Melcourt in Gloucestershire
Wood for the garden, including the beautiful oak setts for the path, was generously provided by Grosvenor Timberworks and All Green from Grosvenor's sustainably managed woodlands within their UK rural estates.
Peat free pioneers Melcourt Industries generously provided bark and other products to dress the garden. Plant Heritage has a longstanding partnership with Melcourt and we are grateful for their support. Niwaki and Gardena kindly provided hand tools and other supplies for the planting team.