For the first time in years, I wasn’t walking the RHS Chelsea showground myself, and I missed it. No early morning wander through the gardens before the crowds arrived, no seeing the planting catch the light in real time, no standing in front of a border trying to identify every single plant. Instead, I followed Chelsea 2026 remotely through RHS coverage, live feeds, and the photos that came through as the week unfolded.
I’d already been thinking deeply about Chelsea in the lead-up to the show, having been asked to provide expert commentary for Best magazine on how to create Chelsea-worthy gardens in small spaces, and for Country Living on colour pairing trends emerging from RHS Malvern. So even from afar, I felt connected to the conversations shaping this year’s show.
Mirela Bajic gives expert commentary for Best Magazine on Small Gardens
And Chelsea 2026 had a lot to say. This felt like a show with purpose, not just beautiful gardens, but gardens designed for real destinations and real people, with nearly every standout design created for a cause that extended far beyond the week itself. That sense of intention gave the entire show a weight I found deeply moving.
Here’s what stood out to me as a garden designer.
The Theme Running Through Everything
Darren Hawkes Landscapes (for the Lady Garden Foundation)
RHS Chelsea Show has always carried a social dimension, but 2026 felt different. The showground became candid about what gardens are really for. The thread running through the strongest designs wasn’t a colour palette or a planting trend. It was intention.
Nearly every garden worth talking about had been created for someone specific: women’s health, food poverty, youth opportunity, lung disease, neurodegenerative conditions, even the gradual disappearance of our countryside edges. In almost every case, these were real briefs with real destinations waiting after Chelsea Week ended.
That sense of purpose also reflected the wider direction the RHS has been building towards for years now. Naturalistic planting, biodiversity in urban spaces, pollinator-friendly schemes, gardens as tools for public health and social connection all shaped the show, from the large show gardens right through to the balcony category.
Parkinson’s UK: A Garden for Every Parkinson’s Journey by Arit Anderson
Parkinson’s UK garden by Arit Anderson, People’s Choice Award winner 2026
This was the garden the public chose above all others, and I completely understand why. Designed by Arit Anderson for people living with Parkinson’s and their families, it was created with a clear destination: the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. That purpose shaped every part of the design.
The planting moved deliberately from rich, jewel-like tones to quieter greens and whites, gently reflecting the lived journey of the condition. But it was the structural thinking that stayed with me most. A twisting hand-rill ran through the space, functioning simultaneously as a sensory feature, wayfinding tool, and handrail. A curvaceous shelter was designed specifically for night-time use. None of the accessibility features felt added on or secondary. They were so seamlessly integrated that they became the design itself.
When Anderson received the People’s Choice Award from Dame Mary Berry, she said, “Not everything that glitters is gold. But this is.” It was her first judged Chelsea garden, awarded Silver by the judges but embraced by the public in an entirely different way.
From my perspective as a designer, this is exactly the kind of garden I return to. The hand-rill alone feels like one of the most thoughtful built elements Chelsea has seen in years, proof that function and beauty don’t have to compete when they’re approached with enough care. This is something I think about constantly in my own work: how do you create planting schemes and structures that serve people’s real needs whilst remaining beautiful?
The CPRE: On the Edge by Sarah Eberle
Sarah Eberle’s ‘On the Edge’, RHS Chelsea Garden of the Year 2026
Sarah Eberle’s Garden of the Year for the Campaign to Protect Rural England felt richly deserved. Returning to Chelsea for the first time since 2022 after five decades of designing show gardens, Eberle came back with something quietly extraordinary.
The garden explored edgelands, those overlooked spaces caught between countryside and town. At its centre sat a fallen tree carved into the figure of Mother Nature, her willow-branch hair forming a winding dry-stone wall that led visitors towards a semicircular gathering space. Native planting appeared almost self-seeded, as though it had arrived there naturally rather than been carefully arranged.
What made the space particularly compelling was its sense of history and imperfection. Fly-tipped plants, overflowing troughs, weathered stone all gave the impression of a landscape already lived in rather than assembled for a few days in May.
For me, the most transferable idea isn’t the planting itself, but the confidence to let art become the focal point of a garden. A centrepiece doesn’t always need to be a water feature or specimen plant. When handled this well, sculpture can set a mood that planting alone can’t quite achieve. It’s something I’ve been exploring more in my own projects, integrating art and structure to create focal points that anchor the entire design.
The Lady Garden Foundation: Silent No More by Darren Hawkes
Lady Garden Foundation ‘Silent No More’ garden by Darren Hawkes, Gold Medal winner
Few gardens arrived at Chelsea with quite as much anticipation as Darren Hawkes’ design for the Lady Garden Foundation, and the Gold medal suggested it lived up to expectations. Created to open conversations around gynaecological cancers, it managed something difficult: addressing a serious subject without ever feeling clinical or overly didactic.
Peach-toned walls curved softly through the space, draped with climbing roses and vines. A winding path moved visitors through five sculptural forms representing the five gynaecological cancers. Rich planting in warm peach and cream tones softened the experience further, with the iris ‘Wondrous’ threading beautifully through the borders.
What impressed me most was the balance. The garden never lost sight of its purpose, yet remained unapologetically beautiful. Rather than forcing a difficult conversation, the design earned it. The colour psychology here was spot-on. Warm, nurturing tones invited people in rather than pushing them away.
The Tate Britain Garden by Tom Stuart-Smith
The Tate Britain Garden by Tom Stuart-Smith, featuring Hepworth’s Bicentric Form 1949
Tom Stuart-Smith returned to Chelsea with his ninth Gold medal already behind him, yet this year’s Tate Britain Garden still felt unexpectedly fresh. Designed as a preview of the future Clore Garden at Tate Britain (opening autumn 2026), it marked the first time a work from the national collection had appeared at Chelsea, with Barbara Hepworth’s Bicentric Form placed at its centre.
The garden leaned into an almost gallery-like atmosphere, pairing East Asian woodland planting and drought-tolerant species with reclaimed stone pathways, bronze rill dishes, and narrow channels of water. The result felt contemplative and restrained rather than overtly decorative.
This one stayed with me. The combination of serious art, ecological sensitivity, and quietly confident structure feels increasingly relevant, not only in show gardens but in residential spaces too. I’ve been working with more clients recently who want drought-tolerant planting that doesn’t sacrifice beauty, and Stuart-Smith’s approach here showed exactly how that balance works.
Trussell’s Together Garden by Rob Hardy
Trussell’s Together Garden by Rob Hardy, People’s Choice Best Small Show Garden (image RHS)
Rob Hardy’s small show garden for Trussell was one of the quieter successes of the week, built around the work of food banks and the communities that form around them. At its centre sat a reflective pool with a clever mechanism allowing it to disappear entirely at the push of a button, instantly creating more space for people to gather.
Intersecting pathways and legume planting (chosen for its ability to naturally enrich the soil) brought another layer of thoughtfulness to the design. What stayed with me most was its warmth. Set to relocate to Strabane Foodbank after Chelsea, it felt grounded in a way the strongest show gardens often do, quietly lovely without trying too hard to prove a point.
As someone who designs small urban gardens regularly, I appreciated the multi-functional thinking here. In Best magazine, I talked about exactly this approach: creating spaces that work harder through clever use of vertical planting, restrained colour palettes, and features that serve more than one purpose. Hardy’s disappearing pool is a perfect example of that philosophy in action.
Hedgerow in the Sky by Sarah Mayfield & Monika Greenhough
Hedgerow in the Sky by Sarah Mayfield & Monika Greenhough, Gold Medal Balcony Garden
Among the balcony and container gardens, this one caught my attention immediately. Designed by Sarah Mayfield and Monika Greenhough for Tech Mahindra, it reimagined the familiar British hedgerow as a layered urban planting scheme and, in doing so, picked up Gold.
What made it so successful was how achievable it felt. Whether for a balcony, roof terrace, or compact raised bed, the design translated beautifully into real life, offering a blueprint for bringing wildlife value into smaller urban spaces. Reworking rural ecology for city living isn’t a new idea, but few gardens this year communicated it with such clarity and confidence.
This is exactly the kind of thinking I bring to my urban garden projects. How do you create privacy, biodiversity, and visual interest in a limited footprint? The layered hedgerow approach works brilliantly for this, and it’s something more homeowners should be aware of.
My RHS 2026 Takeaway
Every year, Chelsea leaves me with ideas to bring back into my own work. Sometimes it’s a material detail or planting combination. This year, it felt more fundamental than that.
Chelsea 2026 reinforced something I’ve felt building for a while: the gardens people connect with most deeply are the ones designed with absolute clarity about who they’re for.
That’s as true in residential gardens as it is at Chelsea. The strongest briefs I receive are rarely the ones focused solely on aesthetics, but the ones rooted in how a space will actually be lived in. Whether that means a sensory rill doubling as a handrail, a disappearing pool that makes room for people, or planting shaped by the realities of a specific landscape, the most meaningful gardens tend to begin with a very human reason for existing.
The wider direction of Chelsea also felt exciting. Naturalistic planting supported by strong structural bones, reclaimed materials used with intention, East Asian woodland species appearing more frequently, and water features designed to serve a purpose rather than simply fill space. All of this pointed towards a future I’m excited by. Biodiversity no longer felt like an added layer, but the starting point.
I may not have made it to Chelsea this year, but in many ways, the show still came to me, and it had plenty to say.
If Chelsea 2026 has sparked ideas for your own garden, I’d love to hear from you. Our garden design service works on outdoor spaces of all sizes across the UK. You can explore our planting plan service or get in touch to talk through what you have in mind.