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Garden name

The Homebase Cornish Memories Garden

Designer

Tom Hoblyn

Awards

Silver-Gilt Flora

Video tour of garden

Description of garden

This garden evokes Tom's childhood memories of holidays by the coast and running on the moors of Cornwall. Granite sourced from one of the last quarries in Cornwall makes up the bulk of the hard landscaping.

A pavilion with an over-sized roof rises out from dogwoods, rhododendrons and virburnum. The roof is reflected in the water below bringing to mind the Cheesewrings on Bodmin Moor.

Running down from the pavilion are rivulets, cut directly into the granite like those made by the retreating sea in the sand. The water feature flows into the main swimming pool which is based on coastal rock pools and planted with oxygenators which look like seaweed. Pool-like pots are planted up with the heart's tongue fern also resembling seaweed.

Planting throughout the garden is representative of the coast and the bleak landscape of the moors. Shrubs echo the shapes of boulders and colours reflect those found in the granite, like the glaucous leaves of Pinus sylvestris 'Watereri' and the blush pink of Rhododendron 'Cunningham's Blush'. Tom has also used plants which remind him of the famous gardens of the Southwest like Cornus controversa, Cornus kousa, and Viburnum plicatum.

Photo

The Homebase Cornish Memories Garden

Inspiration / influences

Tom's childhood visits to Cornwall and its coast has inspired this design, in particular the Cheesewrings made of granite which sit on tors across Bodmin.

List of plants in the garden

Asplenium scolopendrium - Harts tongue fern

Pinus sylvestris 'Watereri' - scots pine shrub

Rhododendron yakushimanum

Iris siberica 'Cambridge Blue'

Corydalis 'blue panda'

Cornus controversa - Giant dogwood

Cornus kousa - Szechuan strawberry

Viburnum plicatum - Japanese snowball

Dicksonia Antarctica - Australian tree fern

Also

Trained in agriculture and set to take over the family farm in Cornwall, Tom ended up changing career because of his love of plants. A Kew student Tom's show garden previous won a Gold Medal at the Chelsea Flower Show 2008.

Links

List of 2011 show gardens - Chelsea Flower Show

Chelsea Flower Show photographs

TV schedule - Chelsea Flower Show

List of 2011 show gardens - Chelsea Flower Show

Archive: Meet the 2010 garden designers