Project highlights
Project Type: Award-Winning Showcase Garden
Style: Contemporary Wellbeing Garden
Location: BBC Gardeners’ World Spring Fair, Beaulieu, Hampshire
The brief
Nature’s Spa was inspired by stories of spring and how that first day makes us feel as we emerge from winter and look ahead toward the summer. We wanted to showcase gardens as places for wellbeing, and the restorative power of nature. The garden was created to encourage visitors to slow down, reconnect and embrace the beauty of the outdoors.
The challenges
Creating a show garden that felt both inspiring and achievable within a compact exhibition space, while delivering a clear story and a lasting impression for visitors over a busy three-day event.
The design
Nature’s Spa was designed as a peaceful retreat, immersed in woodland-meadow planting. A zig-zag boardwalk encourages a slower journey towards a gently trickling natural stone Tsukubai basin, while a Nordic-inspired plunge pool evokes a mountain lakeside, surrounded by drought-tolerant planting and a stone beach.
The outcome
Nature’s Spa was awarded Gold, Best Showcase Garden and the People’s Choice Award at the BBC Gardeners’ World Spring Fair. More importantly, it inspired visitors with ideas for creating beautiful gardens that support wellbeing, people and nature.
“Nature’s Spa is a contemplative, restful retreat that made us yearn for the water. It was underpinned by a masterful and sensitive use of paving, decking and planting.”
– Ian Hodgson, Chair of the Assessment Panel
Featured materials & suppliers
Nature’s Spa was made possible through the support, expertise and collaboration of some fantastic businesses. We’d like to thank Solent Garden Services Ltd, Global Stone, Long Rake Spar, Composite Prime and Welsh Slate Water Features for helping bring the garden to life.
Photography Credits
Photography featured on this page is reproduced with kind permission of Gardens DB, BBC Gardeners’ World Events and Welsh Slate Water Features.
