The design for this year’s garden was loosely inspired by a visit Cleve made to the Roman ruins at Ptolemais, Libya, several years ago which planted the seed in his mind to create a contemporary, sunken garden for The Daily Telegraph.
The garden explores how juxtaposing traditional and contemporary elements can bring an interesting dynamic to a garden.
Cleve West said: “Words cannot express how delighted I am feeling today. It has been a privilege to work with the Telegraph, who gave me the freedom to create a garden I felt passionate about, and I would like to thank the entire team, including Crocus, who worked tirelessly to prepare and build this garden”.
Joanna Fortnam, Gardening Editor, The Daily Telegraph said: “Cleve has won a couple of Gold medals at Chelsea and I saw that he was ready to go that extra mile. I knew he had it in him and with Crocus he could win Best in Show. It is the best garden he has ever done. The sunken garden is calming and Cleve combined familiar plants with unusual ones in such an imaginative way - the end result is so beautiful to look at.”
Key features in Cleve West’s design include a novel sunken space, using reclaimed Cotswold stone for paving and walls, beautiful trees (Sophora japonica), and stunning contemporary sculpture.
Water flowing from pipes in the boundary wall brings sound to the garden, as well as reflected sunlight. Retaining drystone walls and worn cobbles provide an attractive foil for plants, while sculpted columns offer a contemporary note with classical overtones.
The sunken space within the garden accentuates the height of the surrounding planting and, in turn, the intimacy of the garden. Structural yew and box offer familiar structure and a foil for looser plant associations, while self-seeders and colonisers suggest that parts of the garden will shift and change in time, albeit within a rigid framework.
The Daily Telegraph Garden occupies a prime site on the Main Avenue at the 2011 RHS Chelsea Flower Show (MA19).
