London Stone At RHS Malvern Spring Festival

Last week saw the return of RHS Malvern Spring Festival. Discover three stunning gardens and the role London Stone products played in each design.

The Vitamin G Garden

The Vitamin G Garden, the brainchild of TV and radio presenter Jo Whiley and Alan Williams from Landform Consultants, was expertly built by Landscapia.

The garden itself is a walkthrough, meaning it creates an immersive experience, allowing visitors to wander through and take in the features. Its concept is to demonstrate the benefits of gardening as well as generally spending more time outdoors. Focusing on the mental, physical and social benefits, the garden is designed in a series of circles. Each circle represents something you can get from your outdoor space, as well as relating to something that is important in the lives of designers Alan and Jo. There is a peaceful reading area, a creative art studio fully equipped with an easel, a plunge pool, a dining area, and a wilderness space with charming rustic stepping stones.

Starring role for clay pavers

The various circular spaces are each made from a unique material. Outside the studio, connecting to the plunge pool, is Burnt Cedar Millboard. Perhaps the most formal area of the garden is the dining area - this space features our London Mixture Clay Paving. The stunning vintage feel of the clay works harmoniously with furniture and surrounding repurposed wooden beams.

Clay was chosen for its hardwearing, durable and low maintenance qualities. These characteristics mean that less time is spent maintaining the garden.

Low-maintenance planting

Similar thinking informed the planting options. Encircling the clay is a beautiful mixture of planting. This is designed to be low maintenance, allowing for enjoyment without too much work.

Orange geums and zesty lime-green euphorbias are paired with herbs like sage and rosemary. The bright colours of the plants add visual interest, whilst the herbs create a magnificent scent as you brush past. This combination of textures - the hardness of bricks with the softness of wood and planting - produces a beautiful finish.

Not too late to see it

The Vitamin G Garden is a feature garden, and therefore unjudged. Part of its purpose is to provide the RHS Science Team with information on visitors' preferences for flower colour and petal shape. This information will help develop a blueprint for wellbeing gardens. If you missed Malvern this month, luckily it's not too late to enjoy it and tell them what you like. It will be recreated at both RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival and RHS Flower Show Tatton Park.

The Cancer Research UK Legacy Garden

The Cancer Research UK Legacy Garden was designed by Karen Tatlow and built by Design It Landscapes and MJL Garden Design. This judged garden won an impressive three awards! The Silver Gilt, People’s Choice, and Best Construction.

Sponsored by Cancer Research UK, the garden was designed to celebrate people who leave a gift in their will to help fund vital life-saving research. This immersive garden illustrates the important relationship between supporters and science and brings together three elements - design, craftsmanship and materials - to create an overall amazing garden.

Bespoke curves

The snaking pathway is made from our Anthracite Porcelain Paving. The porcelain was bespoke cut by our in-house team, to create the beautiful curves. The path leads to a circular ring of the porcelain that was engraved with the words “Your Pledge”. The neutral tone of the porcelain is the perfect choice to allow the other elements of the garden to shine through. The greens of the planting are an impressive contrast to the grey. Not only this, but porcelain is ideal for a walkthrough garden, enduring the wear and tear that comes with the foot traffic to retain its beauty.

Peaceful design

Venturing in, you come across three benches that are the perfect spot for contemplation. The pergola also provides a shaded place for visitors to sit, reflect and view the garden. As you sit, the windmill sculpture peacefully moves with the wind, creating a tranquil feel. The gently flowing water feature further adds to the calming nature of the garden, reflecting the colours of the trees and flowers.

An interesting aspect is the choice of planting, with many of the plants having a connection with cancer. Chemicals from some have been tested for their anti-cancer properties. Others have led to drugs that are in use today treating cancer.

A Peaceful Escape

Built by Oxford Garden Design and designed by their own Jamie Langlands, and sponsored by ourselves, A Peaceful Escape Garden won a Silver Gilt medal.

This garden gives us Mediterranean vibes with its stone walls and rustic textures. The garden was designed to be a breakout area for a home office, offering a secluded space to relax. The intimate seating area was constructed to provide both screening and structured viewpoints in and out of the space. Tall hedges and evergreen trees fill the remaining voids, further adding to the feeling of intimacy.

Our Egyptian Beige Limestone, as a great value-for-money alternative to Jura Limestone, was used for the seating area. Its beautiful pale colouring contrasts with the Burnt Cedar Cladding backdrop. Large stones surround the seating area and are accompanied by soft planting of bright oranges, purples and greens.

Our Graphite Sandstone Cladding was used to create the walling as well as in the pool. The use of the cladding in the pool area reflects the cladding of the walls, as well as producing a unique and subtle movement in water, particularly when paired with the ripples created by the pump. The water feature is ideal for creating a serene space for relaxing and contemplating.

Final touches to the garden include the window in the walling, offering a viewpoint to watch the world go by. The windowsill for this was created using the same Egyptian Beige Limestone Paving, bullnosed on site to soften the edges.

For more images, click on the product links above, or visit the RHS website.