RHS Badminton 2026
A celebration of compost and community
This garden, selected for the RHS Badminton Flower Show 2026, celebrates all elements of compost and community. It is designed to highlight how recycled green waste feeds soil fertility, which creates a thriving ecosystem that helps our plants grow healthy, and it explores the role of decay in creating beautiful, sustainable gardens.
Evoking the continuous cycle of decomposition and regenerative growth on a woodland floor, the garden has a woodland-edge theme full of plants that thrive in fertile soils. Open areas of woodchip contrast with denser planting to represent the green and brown materials required for good compost.
Deadwood structures in the design provide sculptural interest and habitat for detrivores. An enclosed log structure incorporates finished compost. Vertical character plants represent the dynamic shift of emergence, celebrating new life from organic waste. A log laid flat displays a message celebrating the magic of decay.
The planting adopts a naturalistic approach, using predominantly herbaceous perennials. The colour scheme includes faded pinks, reds and copper tones to reflect gradual decay, whilst fresher whites, pinks and greens provide the theme of emerging life and fertility. Structural anchor plants provide a shrub-like framework amid a low-lying matrix of mixed foliage. A multistem Corylus avellana provides wild yet structural form.
Plants have been specifically chosen to evoke elements of compost. The wispy texture of the flower panicles on Astilbe ‘Deutschland’ are suggestive of the steam that rises from an active living compost heap. And red stems on some of the planting (such as Gillenia trifoliata) represent the composting worm Eisenia fetida.
Plants with upright flower spikes represent the dynamic shift of emergence, celebrating new life from organic waste. Numerous character plants offer varied visual interest and suggest the transition from fertile woodland to open country.
The inspiration for the garden stems from my local community composting scheme BATCOM, of which I am one of the directors. During my involvement I have observed the development of this collective endeavour as both a welcome space and a local community resource. This led me to reflect on parallels within the ecosystem of compost itself, and how decay feeds vitality through community. We can think of community existing across both micro- and macro-levels - from microbial and fungal activity in the composting process, through complex layers of organisms using decaying vegetation for food and shelter, expanding out to schemes that support community between people, promoting human networks.
I am very honoured and excited to have the chance to build this garden at the show, which will be open from Wed 8 - Sun 12 July 2026. Further details here.