The Making Sense Garden People’s Choice Best Get Started GardenSilver Medal
RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival 2024
Acacia Gardens proudly built The Making Sense Garden garden for the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival 2024. It won The People’s Choice Best Get Started Garden, a Silver Medal with garden construction marked as excellent. Designed by Flora Scouarnec and Victoria Pease-Cox and sponsored by Scouarnec & Pease-Cox Garden Design, this unique garden is a sensory oasis. Crafted for individuals with smell and taste disorders, it heightens the senses of sight, sound, and touch, offering a therapeutic environment for exploration, relaxation, and social interaction.
The Making Sense Garden Design And Construction
The garden features two lushly planted levels, and the multi-stemmed trees with tactile bark anchor two corners. Herbaceous beds follow a loose planting scheme, allowing plants to interweave and self-seed over time.
An inviting, curved path with steps descends to a sunken seating area enveloped in greenery. The bench offers a vantage point to admire the beautiful planting.
With aged sculptural elements nestled amongst the planting and rusted hanging chains, the garden has layers of design elements for the show visitors to discover.
A wall-mounted water feature adds a soothing splashing sound, complementing the harmonious colour palette of cool tones with vibrant accents.
The garden construction involved digging down to create the sunken garden effect with a curved path and steps leading up to the ground level.
The Making Sense Garden Sustainability
Designed with sustainability at its core, the Making Sense Garden is a model of responsible design. It uses a self-binding gravel path to reduce concrete usage and manage excess water through a permeable surface. Fence posts are driven directly into the ground, with compacted earth securing them, and timber-framed steps replace concrete blockwork. Partner nurseries are certified peat-free, and plants are grown in recyclable pots.
Following the festival, key elements of the garden will be repurposed and relocated to three private projects undertaken by the designers, ensuring the garden’s legacy continues to provide sensory enjoyment.
Constructing The Making Sense Garden at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival 2024 was a rewarding experience. Designed by Flora Scouarnec and Victoria Pease-Cox, this sensory oasis offers a therapeutic environment for those with smell and taste disorders, emphasising sight, sound, and touch. Winning the Silver Medal with the garden construction marked as excellent is a testament to our dedication to creating inclusive and healing spaces. It was lovely to hear that the garden had won the People’s Choice Best Get Started Garden.
Herman Pobrati
Managing Director Acacia Gardens Ltd