by Michael John McGarr
With one month until we begin on site at RHS Tatton in Knutsford, it’s all systems go here at Warnes McGarr & Co HQ in Greater Manchester. RHS Tatton takes place at Tatton Park in Cheshire from July 19 – 23, and we start the garden design build onsite from Monday, July 3.
Last year, we achieved a silver medal at RHS Tatton with our ‘From Hall to Home’ garden and a gold medal, plus Best Construction in Show at BBC Gardeners World in Birmingham. So we’re definitely looking to increase our medal count this year.
Our Tatton garden design is called simply ‘2101’ and takes place in the future, when climate change has directly impacted the way we live. If predicted temperature increases of up to 7c take place by the year 2101, many of our native British plants will no longer grow in the dry, arid climate and this will profoundly change the way we use our gardens.
This garden design is an amazing chance to make people think about how climate change will affect our everyday lives. And of course, it gives us the chance to use our imaginations to design and build a completely unique and creative garden for the prestigious Cheshire flower show in Knutsford.
My business partner Rob and I have been working hard over the past couple of months, finalising our landscape and garden designs, liaising with suppliers and talking to sponsors.
We now have our RHS Tatton sponsors in place, which include: Casa Ceramica, Rectory Plants, Al Fresco Chef, Knotwood UK and University Technical College Wigan/ Farm Urban.
However, we have a main sponsor to announce shortly, when we have everything finalised, so watch this space…
Casa Ceramica has an amazing new showroom at Trafford Park in Manchester and will be providing us with large format porcelain paving slabs. These will be delivered next week so we can start planning exactly how we’re going to use them.
We have worked with Rectory Plants in Congleton, Cheshire, for many years now and they are one of the most outstanding nurseries in the North West for the quality of their plants. We’re already working really closely with them and growing the plants we need specifically for the show.
We are having a meeting soon with the Al Fresco Chef, who supply the most amazing woodfired ovens, Traeger Grills and fire/ ice tables, to decide on the best product for our 2101 garden this year. We already supply these to clients, and have previously used them in the last two years at RHS Tatton and last year at BBC Gardeners’ World Live.
We’ve just welcomed Knotwood UK on board as a sponsor, who create lightweight aluminum that looks like timber – it’s fantastic.
We’re also working with University Technical College Wigan, and Farm Urban to showcase a sustainable hydroponics growing system, which we’re very excited about.
So as ever, we say a HUGE thank you to all of our sponsors – without them this garden design would not be possible.
We’ll be posting updates and images of all of the products being put into action, so keep following us on:
