Sanctuary Gardens at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2024

Away from the Show Gardens on Main Avenue, the Sanctuary Gardens offer plenty of inspiration and often on a more achievable scale. A garden that honours 200 years of the National Gallery, a family space that can bounce back from heavy rainfall, and a sensory haven that supports the emotional wellbeing for children undergoing cancer treatment, feature in 2024’s line up.

Sanctuary Gardens at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2024

The story of the global dermatological partnership which supports Burmese healthcare workers treating adults and children with skin conditions is told throughout Helen Olney’s naturalistic garden design. Inside the space, a traditional Burmese stilt house constructed from recycled timber offers a lovely view of a cascading waterfall, whilst other areas of the garden are reclaimed and overgrown by foliage, a symbolic illustration of the disrupted environments that the charity operates in.

A family garden that can bounce back from heavy period of rainfall, Naomi Slade and Ed Barsley’s design helps to reduce flood risk by dense planting which slows water flow, and a swale forms a stream which channels rainwater into a feature pond where it can gradually soak away — clever and elegant solutions to challenging weather conditions.

Verdant greens, striking reds and bright oranges make up the palette of Kazuyuki Ishihara’s family garden where the theme of happiness is explored in the acers, velvety irises, mosses and waterfalls that blend practical family life with the beauty of the natural world.

Celebrating 200 years of the National Gallery, Catherine Macdonald has taken inspiration from some of the galleries most coveted collections of significant artworks. The ‘art in nature’ planting scheme abounds around