Royal Horticultural Society - RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2008

Gavin Jones, the landscaping company recently granted a Royal warrant, hopes its next appointment will be a visit by the Royal family to the Gavin Jones Garden of Corian® at this year's Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea Flower Show.

The Gavin Jones Garden of Corian® is a show garden with a very contemporary feel, designed by innovative garden designer Philip Nash. Working with Dupont™ Corian®, a material perhaps best known as a must-have kitchen worktop, Philip will be elevating this versatile solid surface to new heights of horticultural design.

Philip Nash is an exclusively contemporary garden designer for both private residential and corporate sectors. Philip first exhibited at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2004 and won a gold medal for his chic garden. His love of contemporary architecture and sculpture combined with more than just an interest in plants led him to design modern gardens.

For this year’s Chelsea, Philip has designed a garden on a curve and all the key structural elements are made from Corian®. The main feature is a ‘seamless’ walkway which seems to hover above the garden. Stretching from the main terrace, like a coiled fern unfurling its fronds, the walkway reaches out to a swirled seating area on the other side. On the terrace, a cantilevered table and benches appear to have been ‘peeled’ from this startlingly white catwalk.

This is the first time that Corian® has been used in a structural way in a garden setting, and it opens up a whole world of new opportunities to garden designers everywhere.

A two and a half metre tall curved water wall creates a vertical ‘sea’ with an abstract design cut into the surface. It is reminiscent of the sea patterns left on the sand when the tide is out. A beautiful sea pebble colour with ‘break’ points causes the water to almost crash down the wall like waves breaking on the shore.

The sea grass green coloured boundaries of the garden are probably one of the thinnest ever to be seen at the show offering a unique opportunity – to cut a design into the back of the wall which, due to the translucent nature of Corian® in certain colours will be unseen by day and reveal all at night.

Water also features large in this garden. An infinity pool with a catchment rill is lined with black crushed Zodiaq® quartz to provide the backdrop to a floating terrace which appears to float on water. This in itself is quite a technical achievement.

Sculpted glass screens stand in a curved pool that cuts across the full width of the garden. Created by sculptor Tim Morgan, each screen is made of dozens of tall glass cylinders, through which water rises and gently overflows into the pool. Above the cantilevered table of the main terrace, a light stainless steel canopy, supported on a single stem, rises from the water. Also designed by Tim, it allows uninterrupted views of the garden and encloses the space just enough to make visitors feel sheltered and provides a little shade from the sun.

The planting is ultra-modern and architectural in style. The Plantation Nursery has sourced a rare Chamerops humilis which must be coming up to its 50th year, cycas, yuccas and bamboo, all of which contribute to this contemporary setting.

The Gavin Jones Garden of Corian® is designed for both day and night - LED and fibre optics lighting is used throughout and will move and change across the garden.

Occupying one of the prime spots at the Chelsea Flower Show, MA1 this garden is sure to be a show stopper.