As many dog owners can testify, dogs and gardens can sometimes be a tricky combination. Dogs can ruin a neat lawn or tear up valuable plants with their unwanted digging.
But now gardener and famous dog lover Monty Don will design a garden especially for dogs for the Chelsea Flower Show.
The veteran Gardeners’ World presenter’s garden, the RHS said, will be aimed at the nation’s dog owners who want beautiful spaces for them and their furry friends, and will inspire the millions of dog lovers at home to create green havens for them and their pets to create.
Monty Don has been commenting on the efforts of fellow garden designers at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) event for twenty years. And while the garden won’t be entering the competition – to compete for the coveted Best in Show award – other garden designers will no doubt jump at the chance to pass judgment on Don’s efforts.
Readers of Monty’s columns in the Ny Breaking will know that he has a deep love of dogs. He currently has two: Ned, a Golden Retriever, and Patti, a Yorkshire terrier.
Monty Don (photo) will design a garden especially for dogs for the Chelsea Flower Show
The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) is teaming up with Gardeners’ World Monty Don for its first Chelsea garden, which aims to give green-fingered dog owners ideas for creating a haven for themselves and their pets at the May show of this year.
On Sunday he posted a photo of his elderly dog Nellie to Instagram, who died last year, and wrote: ‘Nellie died a year ago today and I think of her not with sadness but with gratitude for the way she enriched my life. No other dog I’ve owned has been so in tune, not just with me, but with the entire family.”
Monty wants the garden, created in a joint initiative with Radio 2, to be an example of everything dogs love – whatever the horticultural fashion – and a beautiful space that any dog owner would love.
He said yesterday: ‘Together with the amazing team led by Jamie Butterworth we will create a garden that is inspired [his own garden] Longmeadow and my own dogs, but above all a celebration of the way so many of us share our gardens with our canine companions.”
In the center of the garden there will be a neatly mown lawn, which is ‘essential for dogs stretching, sleeping, rolling, flopping, itching and chasing balls’, and a large tree will cast shade on the grass so that dogs can stretch out. a warm afternoon.
The lawn will transition to longer grass, planted with spring-flowering ornamental bulbs, creating more of a tame flower meadow than a wild flower meadow.
Brick paths run straight and create vistas – a touch of Longmeadow – with one providing the route through the garden for visitors and another at right angles to the summer house.
Monty wants the garden, created in a joint initiative with Radio 2, to exemplify everything dogs love
On Sunday, Don posted a photo of his elderly dog Nellie on Instagra, who died last year, and wrote: “Nellie died a year ago today and I think of her not with sadness but with gratitude for the way she enriched my life.”
Monty Don has been commenting on the efforts of fellow garden designers at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) event for 20 years
To reflect the special place dogs hold in our hearts and gardens, the paths will be labeled with the names of dogs belonging to Radio 2 presenters and RHS ambassadors, and of course Monty’s beloved dog Ned.
As patron of Battersea Dogs & Cats Home, where the Garden for Dogs will live on after RHS Chelsea, Her Majesty The Queen’s adopted Jack Russell Terriers, Beth and Bluebell, will also appear on the trail.
Within the RHS and Radio 2 Dog Garden, a designated area will be a place where people can enjoy a beautiful tapestry of plants to raise awareness of certain plants that are poisonous to dogs and other pets. Here there will be a mix of planting familiar but favorite plants, as well as a clear theme of balls with lots of alliums and topiary balls of different sizes and types.
However, the public cannot bring dogs into the garden as, with the exception of guide dogs, these are not permitted at the Flower Show.
After the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, The RHS and Radio 2 Dog Garden will live across the River Thames at Battersea Dogs & Cats Home for all rescue dogs and the people who work and volunteer there to enjoy.
Clare Matterson, Director General of RHS, said: ‘Nothing lifts us up like a beautiful garden, and for a little extra joy we’ve added some wagging tails.
‘In 2025 we would really like to celebrate that we are there for all gardeners; dog lovers, families, avid chefs, houseplant fanatics, everyone, and this garden is a great example of how individuals can all bring their passions to life in their outdoor space.”
