Traffic problems and heavy weather gave RHS Chatsworth 2017 a few teething problems. Nothing could dampen the enthusiasm of the judges, though, when it came to giving Neil Sutcliffe of Creative Roots a Silver Gilt medal. We look at the elements that make the garden.

Show garden, RHS Chatsworth 2017, with buff self-binding gravel, Grey Yorkstone block, rill and curved stone-clad wall with bench.
Neil Sutlciffe of Creative Roots chose Grey Yorkstone to create the water feature and rill in his Time for Everything garden, RHS Chatsworth 2017.

Time for Everything

Neil dedicated his Time for Everything garden to Cruse Bereavement Care. Based on the very personal experience of his family having to come to terms with his father-in-law’s terminal diagnosis and death, it used many thoughtful details to illustrate the journey made by those who face this situation.

Water bubbles from top of large square block of Grey Yorkstone and runs down rill between plants and gravel at RHS Chatsworth 2017.
The water seems to bubble up from within the bespoke Yorkstone block before overflowing into the rill.

Grey Yorkstone played a major part in the message of the garden. “We started off wanting a good contrast with the self-binding gravel, which was a buff colour, and also wanted a contrast between old and new, which was a real theme at Chatsworth,” says Neil.

“We had reclaimed Yorkstone in the dry stone wall, so we wanted the same material in a contemporary style.” The Sawn Brushed Yorkstone was used for the bespoke curved wall copings, also along the silver stainless steel rill, with which it worked “really nicely”, and for the dramatic stone cube.

Making a bespoke stone feature possible

This cube was, Neil tells us, one of the features that people commented on most. A solid block would have been impossible to lift, so we created it out of two pieces, each weighing around half a tonne. “The Brushed Yorkstone has really fantastic markings, especially on the stone cube when wet,”

Grey Yorkstone Coping engraved with name edges stainless steel rill in Creative Roots' RHS Chatsworth show garden 2017.
Grey Yorkstone Coping was engraved with the names of loved ones. The coping edges the stainless steel rill in Creative Roots' RHS Chatsworth show garden 2017.

The water bubbling up out of the cube represented the bubbling up of emotion on the diagnosis of terminal illness. It then fell into the rill, on either side of which were names of loved ones whom contributors to the garden had lost, engraved into the Yorkstone copings. The engraving was, of course, completed on our CNC machines. “People really liked the engraving,” adds Neil. “It was perfect.”

Much deserved congratulations to Creative Roots. Enjoy another of Neil's gardens with Sociability, the Best Lifestyle Garden in BBC Gardeners' World Live 2015.

Post updated: November 2023