Sarah Eberle's hauntingly beautiful garden, featuring a giant sleeping woman carved out of a fallen tree, has won the top prize at the Chelsea Flower Show. Eberle, now the Royal Horticultural Society's most decorated gardener, is one of only three women to have won Best in Show as a solo designer in the show's 100-year history.
Garden Design for CPRE
Her garden, designed for the Campaign to Protect Rural England, was described as 'mesmerising' by the judging panel. The space is dominated by a giant statue of Mother Nature, with still pools and soft fronds of grass and wildflowers. It represents the often overlooked countryside at the edge of towns and cities, which CPRE describes as vital green spaces connecting people to nature.
Eberle, 71, said: 'I am thrilled to bits to receive Garden of the Year. This garden's mission is very personal to me. I am a country girl through and through so I embody the same message and beliefs that the Campaign to Protect Rural England and this garden holds.'
Judges' Comments
Chris Bailes, chair of the judging panel, praised the garden's atmosphere: 'Sarah's garden combines elements of myth and remarkable theatre. The planting speaks to an exceptionally rare sense of atmosphere, created through a clear connection to the urban and the countryside. Unexpected beauty is found in the concrete drain repurposed from an agricultural accessory into a mesmerising water feature using common duckweed.'
Gender Imbalance at Chelsea
There has been much commentary among female garden designers about the lack of representation at the flower show. Writer Clare Coulson lamented the gender imbalance, noting that last year Jo Thompson's garden was the only Main Avenue garden designed by a woman. This year, of nine main avenue show gardens, only two are by female designers. Even a garden foregrounding female cancers was designed by a man.
Garden designer Elizabeth Tyler said: 'We all burst out in incredulity in the studio as we realised that the garden for a specifically women's cancer charity was being designed by a man.' Sam Proctor, an award-winning Chelsea designer, added that support structures, such as family and caring responsibilities, often hinder women from participating.
Eberle, in her 50-year career, has often been seen as an anomaly in a male-dominated industry. She has said: 'The reason I think more women don't do Chelsea is because they have a better life balance. It takes over your life if you're not careful. But garden designing is not the only profession where there are more men than women at the top.'
Other Winners
Other winners this year include Joe and Laura Carey for Best Small Show Garden with Addleshaw Goddard: Flourish in the City, a garden celebrating London's hidden gardens. Best All About Plants Garden went to Woodland Trust: Forgotten Forests Garden by Ashleigh Aylett. Best Balcony and Container Garden was awarded to A Little Garden of Shared Knowledge by Katerina Kantalis.
