LCGD Graduate Katherine Holland exhibits her first show garden at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival

We were delighted to see Katherine Holland at this year’s RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival win a Silver medal for her garden ‘A Journey, in collaboration with Sue Ryder’

The garden tells a story about the range of thoughts and emotions that we confront when experiencing grief, and is designed to encourage conversation with the aim of supporting those who are grieving and the people close to them.

A winding path inset with oak cobbles leads you through a transitioning planting palette – from life as normal through shock, disbelief and all-consuming grief. As you exit the garden, the weathered oak posts that gradually rose and encircled you are still there, but now they intersect and entwine as new life grows around them. There is no defined finish – grief can be a lifelong journey, and everybody’s path is different.

The planting was sublime with a range of beautiful perennials such as Achillea ‘Walter Funke’, Astrantia major ‘Ruby Wedding’, Eryngium yuccifolium, Verbena ‘Bampton’ and trees including Tilia henryana and Prunus incisa ‘Kojo-No-Mai’.

For more information on Katherine’s work visit her website www.katherine-holland.co.uk