Garden designer James Basson won the top prize at the Chelsea Flower Show this year for a design he called “stark” and intentionally “brutal.”
A display intended to be “stark and “brutal”— decidedly, not “pretty”— won best in show at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show in London.
Garden designer James Basson’s take on an abandoned Maltese limestone quarry “includes slabs of limestone and evergreens, perennials and ground cover,” according to The Guardian. It was “designed to show the interaction between humans and nature on the island and draws attention to the balance that needs to be maintained.”
A nursery, Crocus, built the garden, and M&G Investments provided financial backing. It’s the ninth time in 12 years the business has partnered with best in show winners. Read more.
“The garden is faultless and outstanding in terms of both construction and attention to detail,” said the chair of the judging panel, James Alexander-Sinclair, after the decision was announced.
Discussing his design beforehand, “Basson stressed its ecological message,” according to the Guardian. “After a research trip to the Maltese quarry that the garden is intended to evoke, he told the Daily Telegraph that it was ‘not supposed to be pretty. It is stark and monumentally brutal.’”
