Co-designing Horatio's Garden: "The planting is informed by different ways of seeing"

“The planting is really informed by different ways of seeing," says Charlotte Harris, landscape designer and co-founder of Harris Bugg studio. "Whether you’re in a bed looking up or whether you are in a wheelchair, understanding layers is really important: an upper canopy layer or smaller trees, shrubs, herbaceous, perennials..."

It’s just a few weeks before the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, and Harris takes a break from the soil to talk about Horatio’s Garden Chelsea with collaborator Andrew McMullan, founder of McMullan Studio, who designed a nest-like pod for the accessible garden.

Horatio’s Garden Chelsea has since won the coveted Best in Show title at Chelsea, but at the time of recording, the installation is just coming into being – albeit with high hopes of a win. 

Harris describes the flower show as a stop on the way to Sheffield for Horatio’s Garden – the garden has been designed for real patients at its ultimate destination: Sheffield’s NHS spinal unit. And patients have been involved in shaping this response to the charity’s brief to nuture the wellbeing of people after spinal injuries. This is Horatio’s Garden’s 8th project, with a vision to provide gardens for all 11 of the NHS spinal units.