Tag Archive for: garden

New garden at Chestnut Tree House Hospice

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New garden at Chestnut Tree House Hospice: The Greenfingers Charity is delighted to announce the official opening of its latest magical garden, this time at Chestnut Tree House Hospice in Arundel, with the new Kitchen Garden which was unveiled on Wednesday 24th September 2025.

Designed by award-winning garden designers Fisher Tomlin & Bowyer and built by Baylis Landscapes, the new space brings together ornamental planting, growing beds, and pollinator-friendly features to create a haven for children, families, and staff.

New garden at Chestnut Tree House Hospice

New garden at Chestnut Tree House Hospice

The Kitchen Garden has been designed to encourage hands-on engagement with nature, supporting sustainability, exploration, education and wellbeing. Children will have the opportunity to learn more about the journey from ‘Garden to Plate’, while produce grown will also be used in the hospice kitchen while the ‘Dads Club’ will be encouraged to get actively involved in tending the garden.

Boyd Douglas-Davies, Chairman of the Greenfingers Charity, reflected on the milestone: “Reaching our 70th garden is a moment of immense pride. Hospices are under enormous pressure to fund the essential care provided within their walls and that’s where Greenfingers steps in. We’re the only charity dedicated to creating therapeutic outdoor spaces for children’s hospices and with the support of our partners and the public, we can continue to make a difference. This Kitchen Garden is a shining example of what can be achieved when compassion and creativity come together.”

Stuart Palma, CEO of Southern Hospice Group, which includes Chestnut Tree House Hospice, added: “It’s a very exciting time for our hospice, and this beautiful new garden is a testament to the power of partnership. Having seen first-hand the essential work hospices do for children and families, I’m thrilled to be part of a community that shares a passion for exceptional care. This garden will offer a peaceful, engaging space for connection, healing, and learning, whilst also providing produce we can use in our kitchens and improve our sustainability. But it’s important to remember that Chestnut Tree House receives only around 7% of its income from central government and with running costs of £6 million a year, we must raise £5 million annually through fundraising and partnerships to keep providing our vital services. That’s why projects like this mean so much and we’re incredibly grateful to Greenfingers and all those who made it possible.”

Greenfingers Charity is hugely grateful to Honorary Member, Roger Head, whose incredible generosity made the garden possible, and to all those who kindly gave funds or gifts in kind to help create The Kitchen Garden at Chestnut Tree House.  Special thanks go to the Chapman Trust, The Hedley Foundation, Alexander Rose Ltd, Arbour Landscapes, Greenwood Plants, Rolawn,Veg Trug and others whose support has helped to bring this very special space to life.

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‘The Subaru Cocoon’ Garden to be unveiled

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‘The Subaru Cocoon’ Garden to be unveiled: Subaru UK & Ireland is set to unveil ‘The Subaru Cocoon’ garden at the prestigious RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival 2025, which runs from 1st- 6th July.

The installation, created by award-winning designers Mike McMahon and Jewlsy Mathews of Mike McMahon Studio, with the Subaru Cocoon Garden reflecting a sculptural, sensory refuge, inspired by the UK and Ireland’s vanishing temperate rainforests.

'The Subaru Cocoon' Garden to be unveiled

‘The Subaru Cocoon’ Garden to be unveiled

Once covering 20% of Britain, these lush, biodiverse ecosystems have now dwindled to less than 1%, making them one of the UK’s most threatened habitats. The Subaru Cocoon draws attention to this quiet crisis, reimagining the traditional walled garden as a sanctuary of both protection and ecological memory.

The display will sit in a prominent position within the historic grounds of Hampton Court Palace. The six-day festival is expected to welcome over 140,000 horticultural enthusiasts to the Palace gardens in west London for a celebration of garden designs, floral displays, and a wide range of other family-friendly activities.

Lorraine Bishton, Managing Director at Subaru UK & Ireland said: “The Subaru Cocoon’ garden at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival supports our commitments to safety and sustainability, whilst showcasing this beautiful, but threatened native habitat.

We know our customers also have a strong connection to nature and are engaged with initiatives that raise awareness of environmental responsibility.

We are delighted that following the show, the garden will provide a legacy supporting the inspirational charity Horatio’s Garden.”

The Cocoon garden reflects Subaru’s commitment to sustainability, care, and considered movement – values shared across both brand and garden installation. Just as Subaru supports responsible exploration through electric innovation, with the zero-tailpipe emission, all-wheel-drive Subaru Solterra, the garden offers a place of refuge that treads lightly on the land. Both prioritise harmony with the natural world. At their core, they both share a quiet belief in elegant, considered design to live better, prioritising awareness and beauty while simultaneously minimising unwanted impact.

The Subaru Cocoon Garden features a striking curved Jali wall – a perforated architectural screen that honours co-designer Jewlsy Mathews’ South Indian heritage – made from 4,500 innovative Kenoteq K-Briqs. These revolutionary building materials are manufactured from over 95% recycled construction waste and emit 95% less carbon than traditional fired bricks. The Jali wall doubles as a super-sized ‘insect hotel’, its porous structure supporting microhabitats across the site. By using sustainable bricks, the garden project has diverted 9.45 tonnes of construction waste from landfill and saved 1,972 kg of CO₂ emissions – equivalent to the amount of CO2 80 mature trees would absorb over a full year. This innovative approach to biodiversity follows Mike McMahon Studio’s RHS Chelsea Gold Medal-winning garden in 2024.

In lieu of a traditional walled garden door, a reflective water threshold —a symbolic cleansing—leads into a cool, immersive landscape of texture and shadow. Cantilevered fallen tree trunks hover dramatically above the wall, planted with native epiphytes in a bold interpretation of the forest’s “chop-and-drop” cycle, where decaying wood returns nutrients to the soil. The planting scheme features exclusively native species from the UK and Ireland, including thirteen species of fern, Silver Birch, and Scots Pine, structured in forest-like layers to celebrate the rich biodiversity of Britain’s temperate rainforests.

Mike McMahon of Mike McMahon Studio said: “The UK and Ireland’s temperate rainforest is a landscape that’s both ecologically rich and tragically overlooked – something we wanted to highlight with the Subaru Cocoon Garden. This type of installation has never been created at Hampton Court Palace before; it felt like the right moment to highlight the fragile epiphytes and micro-ecosystems that thrive in these endangered environments.”

“The garden is enveloped by a circular brick jali wall that frames the plants, plays with light and shadow, and invites you to look through and around, like you’re glimpsing through trees. Sustainability isn’t an add-on, it’s embedded in every decision we’ve made, from using zero concrete to ensuring all elements are reusable or relocatable once the show ends.”

As part of Subaru’s commitment to sustainability, the garden will be given a second life after the festival with plans to repurpose it to Horatio’s Garden charity, ensuring the installation continues to inspire and provide a place to nurture the wellbeing of people beyond the event.

For more information on the Subaru range, including the all-electric Solterra, visit www.subaru.co.uk

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Green-tech’s donation to Gold Medal-winning Garden

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Green-tech’s donation to Gold Medal-winning Garden: Green-tech is proud to have supported the Garden of the Future at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025 by donating its Green-tree soil substrate, helping bring a powerful vision of climate-resilient horticulture to life.

Designed by Butler & Parker and supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Garden of the Future received a prestigious Gold Medal at this year’s show. Constructed by Acacia Gardens, the thought-provoking installation explored sustainable living and resilient planting in the face of climate change, demonstrating how collaboration and innovation are key to supporting communities across the globe.

Green-tech's donation to Gold Medal-winning Garden

Green-tech’s donation to Gold Medal-winning Garden

Set in a near-future UK, the garden imagines a world where the climate is continuing to change. Where countries are experiencing higher-than-average temperatures, more extreme weather, periods of drought, and sudden, heavy rainfall. Designed to thrive in these conditions, the bio-diverse garden featured an array of climate-resilient ornamentals and crops, edible plants with multiple uses and properties, and tools that demonstrate how farmers, scientists, and communities are innovating to grow a healthier future here in the UK and globally.

Green-tech’s Green-tree soil substrate played a vital role in this climate-resilient landscape, providing a stable and sustainable growing medium for the garden’s structural planting and biodiverse scheme. Developed to offer high performance in urban and rooftop environments, Green-tree substrate was an ideal match for the garden’s semi-intensive, biosolar roof system, which was constructed with the support and donations from GRO (Green Roof Organisation) member businesses, including Green-tech.

Mark Wood, Business Development Director at Green-tech, comments, “We were proud to donate our Green-tree soil substrate to such an inspiring and important show garden. The Garden of the Future aligns closely with our values of supporting sustainable landscaping, futureproofing urban green spaces, and promoting climate resilience through innovation.”

The garden enabled visitors to understand the science and research behind these innovations, the challenges and solutions being developed by smallholder farmers, and what countries like the UK can learn from countries living on the frontline of climate change.  By showcasing global innovators and their solutions, the Garden of the Future aimed to inspire visitors to believe in the power of innovation and collaboration to transform human potential around the world, as well as offering take-home ideas for growing plants in a more sustainable, climate-resilient way.

Alongside Green-tech, other GRO members who contributed to the biosolar roof system included Bridgman & Bridgman, PV Plus, TEP, Optigrün, Diadem, SIKA, Radmat, and Wraxalls.

To learn more about the Garden of the Future, visit www.rhs.org.uk/shows-events/rhs-chelsea-flower-show/gardens/2025/garden-of-the-future

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Webb Launches High-Performance Garden Shredder

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Webb Launches High-Performance Garden Shredder: British garden machinery brand Webb has expanded its electric tools portfolio with the introduction of the WEISWB Electric Garden Shredder – a high-performance 2500W impact shredder designed to make garden waste reduction fast, safe, and efficient.

Ideal for medium-sized gardens, the shredder combines robust cutting power with a compact, user-friendly design. Its 2500W motor drives steel blades at an impressive 4500rpm, effortlessly handling branches up to 45mm in diameter. The result is fine, nutrient-rich mulch that’s ideal for composting or improving soil quality in flowerbeds and vegetable plots.

Webb Launches High-Performance Garden Shredder

Webb Launches High-Performance Garden Shredder

“This is a strong addition to the Webb range and perfectly timed as consumers increasingly seek electric garden tools that deliver performance without compromise,” says Mark Moseley, Sales & Marketing Director at Handy. “The WEISWB has been developed to support garden clearance across seasons, providing a dependable and commercially attractive solution for our retail partners.”

Featuring a practical design, the WEISWB includes a 40-litre collection box to minimise downtime, a removable hopper for easy feeding, and a large on/off switch for straightforward operation. For added safety, a locking lever prevents access to cutting components during use, while built-in overload protection automatically cuts power if the machine becomes jammed.

Portable, with large integrated wheels, the shredder is easy to move and store, making it a smart choice for gardeners with limited space. Suitable for beginners or experienced garden enthusiasts, the WEISWB offers a reliable, low-maintenance solution for year-round garden clearance.

Retail-ready with eye-catching packaging and full POS support available, the WEISWB is available now for trade orders.

To learn more about the Webb range or to purchase at trade pricing, visit: https://webbgardenpower.co.uk/become-a-webb-stockist/

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Origin Enterprises acquires Elixir Garden Supplies Ltd

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Origin Enterprises acquires Elixir Garden Supplies Ltd: Origin Enterprises plc (’Origin’ or ‘the Group’), the international group shaping the future of sustainable land use, today welcomes the acquisition of Elixir Garden Supplies Ltd (“Elixir”), a UK-based industry leader in online gardening supplies.

Established for over 35 years’, Elixir has extensive expertise in fertilisers, feeds and garden care, delivering the essentials customers need in a fast-growing market segment. Offering a focused product range, the company has built a reputation for quality, expert customer support and a highly responsive supply chain — dispatching up to 20,000 orders across the UK each week, 90% of which are own-brand sales.

Origin Enterprises acquires Elixir Garden Supplies Ltd

Origin Enterprises acquires Elixir Garden Supplies Ltd

Elixir’s successful direct-to-consumer model further strengthens Origin’s expanding portfolio within its Living Landscapes division representing further progress towards the Group’s target for this division to deliver 30% of Group operating profit by the end of FY26. The acquisition enhances Origin’s ability to serve both professional and home gardening customers through a fully integrated supply chain, from raw material through to end user — a competitive advantage that sets Origin apart in the market.

TJ Kelly, Divisional Managing Director of Living Landscapes, commented: “Elixir Garden Supplies is a strong addition to the Origin family, which both complements our existing portfolio of businesses and accelerates our ability to serve the fast-growing online garden care market. By combining Elixir’s direct-to-consumer platform with Origin’s manufacturing scale and supply chain strength, we are positioned to deliver superior product ranges, value and service to customers throughout the UK.”

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