The RHS Chelsea Flower Show is back in its traditional May timeslot for the first time in three years and, this time around, things are a little bit wild in SW3.
When you step through the floral archway at the main gate you can't help but notice the display is simply buzzing with bees. It's a mix of native plants, species and cultivated flowers that are a magnet for pollinators – stylishly unruly, but very, very beautiful, and this sets the scene for the show.
Forget clipped box balls and yews, freshly cut lawns, and exotic architectural planting. The inspiration for Chelsea 2022 is the British countryside and, whether it's wild food plants in the Alder Hey Urban Foraging Station, or tranquil floral meadows in Andy Sturgeon's Mind Garden, the show is brimful with flowers and long grasses that will make you feel like you've just stepped into a meadow. The look is all about growing natural, native and wildlife-friendly gardens. But how easy is it to get the wild look at home?
Designer Juliet Sargeant, who created the New Blue Peter Garden, advises: 'Wild gardening is all about choices. In a small space, it's hard to achieve all-year interest with the wild look because there is a time when it just doesn't do – but it does work in containers, and it's pretty low maintenance, as you can cut it back every year and the plants will return. Think about using native plants and smaller flowers that will intermingle – things with a long stem that poke up through other things, like geums.'
Here are 10 planting ideas to inspire that natural feeling in your own green space. Combine three or more of these plants in a container for a loose, free-flowing look that will give you flowers right through summer, or add them to a more formal mix to introduce a wild element and attract those all-important pollinators. Or, if you're after a no-mow meadow, get started with wildflower turf by Lindum Turf, which has a mix of wild campion, ragged robin, yarrow, oxeye daisies and plantain already sown into the mats.