Hampton Court Flower Show 2016: 5 Gardens Feature London Stone Products

Congratulations to Andrew Fisher-Tomlin and Dan Bowyer for their Bowel Disease UK Garden for Crohn’s Disease. Rarely does one have to dodge baby owls blown out of the trees by the wind in the run-up to Hampton Court's opening. Despite the difficulties with the wind, they still garnered Best Summer Garden. Their design is lush with hardy exotics, both illustrating aspects of Crohn’s Disease and creating an interesting, de-stressing retreat for a young person who suffers from it.

Creating a contrast to all that lush greenery is Sintered Stone. This is incredibly hard and looks superb with a hammered texture. The paving pattern is made up of radius-cut curved slabs created in our Bespoke Stone Centre. The organic shapes of the paving slabs were chosen because Andrew and Dan wanted to make a link to the gardens they create abroad. “A third of our work is overseas,” said Andrew, “and we’re particularly known for sinuous, relaxed design. People haven’t really seen us doing that here. The shapes really suit the exotic, jungly planting.” Andrew particularly liked the flexibility that sintered stone offered. “It allows you to do big slabs that interlink. If you want to do something a bit more fluid, then this is a fab product.” Originally butted up, the laying pattern was tweaked. “We gave them a 25mm gap, which is quite big, and what that’s done is opened it up and emphasised the colour and shape.” Another advantage was the space the sintered stone saved in transport. “The whole path arrived on two palettes that high—” he waved somewhere towards his knees “—because the stone is only 12mm thick.”

The sintered stone was also one of the least demanding elements, making it easy to insert the steel fire pit, which was dropped onto a rebate precisely cut by our CNC machine. “The garden took four days to plant,” said Andrew, “but the paving was down in three hours.” Andrew tells us that it certainly caused a stir. Landscapers took a keen interest. “They’re amazed at the product,” added Andrew. “They can’t make out what it is.” Find out more: Andrew Fisher-Tomlin explains the concept behind the Bowel Disease UK Garden.

Also winning Best Garden in their category were Tom Massey and John Ward with their conceptual UNHCR Border Control Garden. The garden asked visitors to question their attitude to refugees, using native and non-native plants to represent people, and a central shelter and wildflower meadow surrounded by barbed wire and a moat to represent the safety the refugees desire.

Moving deeper into the protected centre of the garden, you crossed from the timber to honed Darleymoor Buff Yorkstone. The large curved slabs formed a smooth path of desire into the protection of the interior. Their warm, even colouring and smooth, rich texture couldn’t be more different from the roughness outside. “It’s an absolute contrast,” said Tom. “We wanted to create something that looked perfect and we really needed high-quality stone, custom cut. It’s got such a lovely finish; it really fits with the wildlife meadows and pavilion.”

With the circular pavilion at the centre, it was a natural choice to have the paving radially cut, creating a lovely line around the pavilion.And in the centre, the message, engraved on our CNC machine, sums up the UNHCR’s aims.

Darleymoor Buff Yorkstone also inspired Rae Wilkinson. She used it for the quoin stones that capped the curved brick walls, demanding some nifty programming and cutting from our CNC operators to accommodate the tapered shape.

The quoins brought a fine finishing touch to her design for Abbeyfield Society A Breath of Fresh Air, built by Outdoor Options. It's created as a safe, relaxing space at a care home for the elderly, many of whom have dementia . “It’s a lovely stone,” said Rae, “really lovely quality in a mix of grey and buff tones.”

In the centre of the garden, a water feature was surrounded by Smooth River Pebbles. Their large, rounded and smooth shape made a lovely contrast with the compacted, rough, brushed texture of the Breedon gravel.

The Witan Investment Trust Global Growth Garden, designed by Jane Bailey, is inspired by the Witan Investment Trust's vegetable garden project that opens in spring 2017 at RHS Hyde Hall. It showcases edible plants from around the world which can be grown in the UK.

A spiral path winds past the curved architecture of a grass-covered landform and incorporates stone setts of one of our new stones this year, Antique Cream sandstone. Jane used soft, relatively unstructured planting, intriguingly of edible plants from all over the world, some of which, like hostas, may not be instantly recognisable as something we'd put on our plate. Cool blues and whites progressed to pinks and purples, culminating in reds, yellows and oranges.

Looking down from the burgeoning beds, you saw a neat edging of Antique Cream sandstone setts. Ed Burnham of Burnham Landscaping said, “The walkway is a public space, so we’ve got good quality paving and the oak of the raised beds to frame the pathway.” The path has no straight edges, with curves that tighten towards the centre of the garden. The setts were all cut to fit on site. What did it entail? “Time and patience,” sighed Ed.

Catherine MacDonald designed Squire’s Garden, to celebrate the company’s 80th anniversary and won Gold. Squire's are showing for the third time at Hampton Court, this time designed by Catherine Macdonald. Built by Landform Consultants, this Show Garden aimed at a suburban couple who want something a bit different for their rectangular plot, but still have a place to relax and entertain. Catherine used a diagonal axis to disguise the overall shape while incorporating squares and rectangles elsewhere in the design. This was our third garden at Hampton Court Flower Show 2016 to feature Darleymoor Buff Yorkstone. Here, it really took a starring role, not only making up the paving but also the mowing strips, stepping stones (with pencil round edges), step treads, risers and coping. There were different sizes of paving slabs and three different sizes of steps and stepping stones, with two different finishes.

Alongside the Yorkstone, Catherine used Mint Sandstone wall cladding, which blended well with the colouring and echoed the rectangular shapes used throughout.

For her garden at RHS Chelsea this year she chose Grey Yorkstone. “The buff is slightly warmer,” she said. “It works well tonally with the strong Squire’s colours of burgundy red and gold.” And that’s it for another year. What with RHS Chelsea 2016 and RHS Hampton Court, the beginning months of the year are always a concerted effort of concentration, planning, scheduling and execution. Exhausting, but very rewarding. NB We no longer supply Darleymoor Buff, but Britannia Buff Yorkstone is a lovely alternative Post updated: November 2023