Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival: all 20 gardens (and winners) at this year's show

Chelsea Flower Show may be the most prestigious gardening event, but Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival (formerly Hampton Court Palace Flower Show) is most definitely the largest, and it has delivered a spectacular display of gardens of this year.

RHS Hampton 2022 delivered 20 gardens across four categories: Show Gardens, Feature Gardens (not judged), Get Started Gardens and Global Impact Gardens. From show-stopping to thought provoking, garden designers have showcased innovative ideas, beautiful plants and detailed landscaping.

Like any RHS Show, the gardens have all been judged (except for Feature Gardens) where the designers have been awarded either a Bronze, Silver, Silver-Gilt or Gold medal. There's also the Best in Show category awards, plus Best Construction, and then there's the highly coveted People’s Choice Award winners too.

Elsewhere, with a career spanning over 40 years, Sarah Eberle has been honoured with the RHS Iconic Horticultural Hero award in recognition of being the most decorated designer across all RHS shows with a staggering 21 Gold medals.

• RHS Hampton 2022 winners:

Best Show Garden: Over The Wall by Matthew Childs Design

Best Show Garden Construction: Over The Wall by Matthew Childs Design

RHS People's Choice Best Show Garden: John King Brain Tumour Foundation Garden designed by Rhiannon Williams

Best Global Impact Garden: What Does Not Burn by Victoria Manoylo & Carrie Preston

Best Get Started Garden: Lunch Break Garden by Inspired Earth Design

Best Construction (Global Impact or Get Started): The Wooden Spoon Garden by Toni Bowater and Lucy Welsh

RHS People's Choice Award (Best Get Started and Global Impact Garden): #knollingwithdaisies designed by Sue Kent

RHS Iconic Horticultural Hero award: Sarah Eberle.

'Congratulations to all of the award winners at this year's RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival. The breadth of design and ideas behind each one was really thought provoking and inspiring, as well as visually beautiful,' Helena Pettit, RHS Director of Gardens and Shows, said.

Take a look at all the gardens (and winners) up close below.

SHOW GARDEN | Awarded: Gold | Best Show Garden | Best Construction Award

This garden is a conceptual space to highlight the work conducted by Over The Wall (OTW) children's charity and Japanese healthcare company Takeda, who support children living with rare and serious illnesses or disability, and their families.

The circular garden invites visitors to step 'over the wall' and enter an uplifting, joyful space, while a winding path leads visitors towards a 'sunrise' circular opening in the wall, which symbolises new possibilities.

SHOW GARDEN | Awarded: Silver-Gilt

A disused farm building has left its mark in this garden, leaving behind a stone wall with original features. Aiming to inspire with a sense of romance and beautiful abandonment, a bespoke pergola built from reclaimed oak frames the family seating area, providing character, a sense of age, and shade from the sun.

SHOW GARDEN | Awarded: Silver | People’s Choice Best Show Garden

This hospital rooftop garden provides a vital space for patients and hospital staff to be immersed in nature. It demonstrates how the charity is transforming under-used areas of grey concrete rooftops into hidden sanctuaries.

SHOW GARDEN | Awarded: Silver

This formal and symmetrical garden, with paved walkways around a rill and planted borders, celebrates the incredible kindness of ordinary people who, in leaving a gift in their will, gift a future of hope for those living with cancer. At the heart of the garden is a sculpture inspired by a mighty English oak, symbolising strength, wisdom and healing.

SHOW GARDEN | Awarded: Silver

Highlighting luxurious outdoor living, this garden boasts a louvred pergola at the rear, a bespoke fireplace for entertaining complete with glass doors, plus a plunge pool and sun loungers at the front. A decadent dining area provides space for guests to sit comfortably, while five large multi-stem trees add structure and character to the space.

SHOW GARDEN | Awarded: Silver

This garden aims to raise awareness of the issues surrounding isolation and loneliness in later life, illustrating the importance of social connection and community. With a geometric design, part of the garden is separated by steel screens, representing social isolation. There's colourful planting, a short path leading to a bridge across a pond, and evergreen pine trees to signify wisdom and longevity.

SHOW GARDEN | Awarded: Bronze

Representing Alzheimer's Research UK, this garden highlights the changing dynamics in a family or friendship group when someone is diagnosed with dementia and the implications for each generation involved. The large, yarn-structured walkway emphasises the confusion and disorientation people with dementia may have.

SHOW GARDEN | Awarded: Bronze

Celebrating teamwork, individual skill and craftsmanship, this garden includes corten steel moongates drawing the eye through the centre, over the pool, and towards the decorative sunburst. Meanwhile, the decorative steel panels provide a backdrop to vibrant and colourful planting, from electric blues to fiery reds.

FEATURE GARDEN

This multi-dimensional garden takes you on a journey of sustainable landscapes, featuring a blend of native and exotic plants selected for their health benefits or other practical uses.

Sarah is the RHS Iconic Horticultural Hero at RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival 2022 – the honour acknowledges her professional contribution to horticulture during her 40-year career, which has included 21 Gold medals at RHS Shows, six of which has been at Hampton.

FEATURE GARDEN

Drawing on a practice that involves spending time under the canopy of trees surrounded by nature for improved health and wellbeing, forest bathing focuses on exploring the natural environment using the senses (sight, sound, touch and smell) to create mindfulness awareness. This naturalistic woodland garden includes a canopy of hornbeam and silver birch trees creating dappled shade.

FEATURE GARDEN

This garden is packed with ideas for tackling climate change, incorporating resilient and sustainable planting ideas for hot, dry slopes and sunken, wet marginal areas. The garden also promotes upcycling, demonstrating creative ways to use readily-available materials. The design concept is balance, with two halves of yin and yang and a central pathway dissecting the space.

FEATURE GARDEN

Marking the perimeter of the Festival of Roses is this garden which celebrates The Queen's Platinum Jubilee. It's packed with David Austin roses, with one cultivar for each decade of Her Majesty's reign. From pure white to pale pink, the roses are complemented by shrubs and low-level planting to help create an informal and romantic garden style.

FEATURE GARDEN

Demonstrating the ornamental qualities of an edible garden, this plot is packed with organic vegetables, fruit and flowers, showing an example of no-dig gardening, in which heritage cultivars thrive and companion planting is key.

There's also a glasshouse in which tender plants are grown, orderly beds of everyday and unusual vegetables and fruit, and a cooking station with a sail structure providing shelter. Its design and ethos are based on that of River Cottage farm in the Axe Valley in east Devon.

FEATURE GARDEN

Inspired by the evidence-based research that proves how gardening benefits our mental, physical and social wellbeing, this garden is based around a series of interconnecting capsules that form a daily dose of 'vitamin G', incorporating an area for contemplation, relaxation and restoration.

GET STARTED GARDEN | Awarded: Gold | Best Get Started Garden

Unifying the need to reconnect with nature and foster richer relationships with green spaces, this garden provides a sanctuary from work – a place to unwind, improve positive mental wellbeing, and become immersed in the nurturing of plants.

The planting palette is vibrant and diverse, deliberately restricted to eight herbaceous selections. It's punctuated with raised steel planters of varying heights, while multi-stem trees offer structure, form and interest for every season.

GET STARTED GARDEN | Awarded: Silver-Gilt | People’s Choice Award (Best Get Started / Global Impact Garden)

This garden is inspired by the designer's love of daisies and influenced by the social media hashtag #knolling (the process of arranging related objects in parallel or 90-degree angles).

Designed for people who find physical work a challenge, this garden illustrates how a garden's design can impact an individual’s ability to function and flourish in a space. There are modular walls made from repurposed timber for storage and display, and hard landscaping constructed from reclaimed paving.

GET STARTED GARDEN | Awarded: Silver-Gilt | Best Construction Award

Reimagining a conventional garden as a low-maintenance space, this garden is designed for maximum use and features a sunken terrace for privacy and a sense of seclusion framed by easy-to-grow, everyday plants, such as Astrantia, Heuchera and Penstemon, which are attractive to pollinators.

GET STARTED GARDEN | Awarded: Silver

Showcasing a riot of colour, thanks to a pink and purple colour scheme, this garden is designed for the owner of a new-build home who wants to create a garden but is a complete beginner. Exploring simple, cost-effective options for low-maintenance gardening, the space focuses on climate-friendly planting that requires minimal watering.

GLOBAL IMPACT GARDEN | Awarded: Silver-Gilt | Best Global Impact Garden

This garden is a distillation of the Ukrainian landscape and culture, at the centre of which is the rushnyk, an embroidered cloth used in many rituals as a symbol of life and identity. Rushnyks adorn the remains of a burnt cottage standing as a silhouette amongst a field of barley interspersed with field weeds. Tucked inside the cottage is a tryzub sculpture as a symbol of rebirth.

GLOBAL IMPACT GARDEN | Awarded: Silver

This garden tells a story about the thoughts and emotions we confront when experiencing grief. A winding path inset with oak cobbles leads you through a transitioning planting palette – from life as normal through shock, disbelief and all-consuming grief. Upon the exit, the weathered oak posts intersect and entwine as new life grows around them. There is no defined finish, showcasing that grief can be a lifelong journey, and everybody's path is different.