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Garden name

Irish Sky Garden

Designer

Diarmuid Gavin

Awards

Gold medal & The RHS People's Choice Award

Video tour of garden

This video tour is taken from the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Red Button coverage of RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2011.

Description of garden

Soft and subtle planting creates a base for one of the most unusual gardens Chelsea has seen; a garden in the sky. Taking the shape of a large pink pod containing what is essentially a quintessential English garden, Diarmuid has created a garden which will thrill and amuse visitors.

Beneath the suspended pod, which is covered in living grass, a myriad of dark pools reflect what's happening above. Large hornbeams point up to the sky and soft mounds of box and pine create cloud-like shapes amongst the pools. A ribbon of rusted steel cuts across the pools leading you up to the sky garden. Once aboard and up in the sky there are views of the showground which have never been seen before.

Diarmuid Gavin and Alan Titchmarsh in the Irish Sky Garden

Inspiration / influences

Diarmuid was inspired by the film Avatar and the characters who inhabit the forest and tree canopies. He's also inspired by the Restaurant in the Sky a unique place to eat suspended by a crane.

List of plants in the garden

Miscanthus sinensis

Photinia x fraseri 'Red Robin' - Christmas berry 'Red Robin'

Carpinus betulus - Hornbeam

Buxus sempervirens - box

Argyranthemum frutescens - marguerite

Lavandula angustifolia 'Hidcote' - English lavender 'Hidcote'

Carex comans 'Frosted Curls' - sedge 'frosted curls'

Also

One of the first gardens Diarmuid ever designed for Chelsea was rejected by the RHS, it was a hanging garden. Now he's got the chance to make the garden he's dreamt of. However it's been a hard journey, the health and safety issues alone are a headache but he's determined to show people something different.

"It could be brushed aside as a trick but I think if we make it beautiful as well, then it becomes something valid to do, otherwise it becomes a great indulgence and I don't want to do that. I want people to smile and to think its beautiful."

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