Sarah Eberle’s On the Edge Garden Opens at RHS Chelsea
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- Sarah Eberle designed the “On the Edge” garden for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, marking CPRE’s centenary and highlighting vulnerable fringe lands.
- Chris Wood carved a fallen sequoia into a reclining female figure representing Mother Nature/Gaia, which serves as the garden’s centerpiece with a rainwater pool and dry stone wall.
- On the Edge garden features wildlife‑friendly native plants often considered weeds—such as buttercup, wild strawberry, purple foxglove, cow parsley, and stinging nettles—to showcase the ecological value of ordinary landscapes.
- Fly‑tipping motifs like a discarded gnome and dumped garden waste illustrate how community use shapes edgelands, with hardy species including geranium, amsonia, Russian iris, disporum, echium, and crocosmia.
- CPRE is launching an interactive map of England’s edgelands, inviting public observations, and is lobbying the government to protect green belts, fund edgeland farmers, and empower community land trusts.
- The garden will later be relocated to a regeneration housing development in urban Sheffield to inspire residents to nurture nearby fringe lands.
- Design details include a boundary of old corrugated tin suggesting a barn side, and a leaky concrete agricultural trough filled with duckweed and rainwater to create a damp planting area.
Why it matters: It gives CPRE a high‑profile platform to rally public support for protecting England’s green belts and edgelands, potentially influencing policy and encouraging community stewardship, while developers may face stronger opposition to encroaching on these habitats. The garden’s relocation to a Sheffield housing development showcases a practical model for weaving nature into urban renewal, giving residents tangible biodiversity and recreation benefits.
