The brief

The brief for 2010 was to design a garden for a young couple in their 30s. Applicants had the choice from two different contexts - an Urban Garden and a Rooftop Garden.

The 2010 award provided an opportunity for an individual or group to design and build a garden in the small garden category at The Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2011. Wyevale East Nurseries funded materials with the applicant to work to a budget of £5000 for materials. Wyevale East Nurseries supplied all of the plants for the project.

The Winner

The winner of Wyevale East Nurseries' Student Design and Build Award 2010 is Charlotte Murrell. For more information, see Charolotte's website at www.charlottemurrell.co.uk

Charlotte's path to becoming a garden designer is the culmination of a number of experiences from her earlier studies and career.  Having studied art and design, sculpture, stone masonry and interior design Charlotte realised that all these skills could be applied to and would work well together in the great outdoors.  Time spent as the Assistant Gardener at Trewidden Garden near Penzance in Cornwall provided Charlotte with practical horticulture experience.  Alongside the Head Gardener and a number of volunteers Charlotte spent a couple of years working in the 15 acre garden renowned nationally for its collections of camellias and magnolias.

A passion for art and design - drawing, sketching, hands on creativity and a love of gardens, gardening and being outside saw Charlotte enrol at Sparsholt College Hampshire on the Foundation Degree in Garden Design. 

Now Charlotte's art is what she can create collectively with flowers, planting, spatial awareness and design.  She does this incredibly well with her 'Wild in the City' garden which won winning the National Student Design and Build competition sponsored by Wyevale East Nurseries run in conjunction with the Royal Horticulture Society.  

So what next for Charlotte? While alongside launching her own garden design business www.charlottemurrell.co.uk, she is keen to work alongside fellow garden design experts - honing her skills and building on the results of learning and experience displayed here at RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show. 

The winning design

In this small urban wildlife garden, being unveiled at RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower show, our winner Charolotte Murrell aims to promote wildlife gardens to those who may consider them too scruffy and messy. Naturally there is always a place for the very wild wildlife garden, but Charlotte's objective was to demonstrate that they can be contemporary and appeal to a wider range of people and therefore be used in a smaller setting such as a city or a town.

Charlotte takes up the story:

The design for a Contemporary Urban Wildlife Garden is entitled 'Wild in the City' and is for a couple with two young children aged eight and five. My aim was to design a garden that would provide a calm relaxing space for the family to unwind from the fast pace of city life, while also educating the children about wildlife and biodiversity.

I want to encourage people who would not normally consider having a garden designed for wildlife, to do so, by demonstrating that such a garden can be contemporary and sophisticated, not scruffy and unsightly, as is often thought to be the case.

The design includes a gravel garden with a beach style wildlife pond, providing easy access to water for amphibians and safe drinking for birds and hedgehogs. A small deck overhangs the pond, providing a platform for the children to study the pond life and a seating area for the family. The pond contains boulders and pebbles to provide nooks and crannies for wildlife to hide in.

The planting is all chosen with wildlife in mind, as well as the overall aesthetic, providing a range of flower shapes and sizes for a variety of insects to pollinate and obtain nectar. The trees have been chosen for their flowers and fruit.

There are green-roofed bird and insect houses providing extra habitats while also acting as supports for climbing plants. There are timber walls on two sides of the garden constructed from green oak posts with neatly sawn small logs stacked between, providing places for amphibians and insects to hide.

	Wild in the City leaflet For more information on the garden and the award, download the Wild in the City leaflet.
	Plant List Download the plant list for the Wild in the City garden.

At Hampton Court

Congratulations to Charlotte for her fabulous garden and most of all for the award of a Silver-Gilt Medal. The two pictures below show the finished garden and a proud Charlotte with her medal certificate flanked by (L to R) David Vickers of Sparsholt College, Liz Hughes of Wyevale East and Richard McKenna of Wyevale East.

The Finished Garden

'The Medal' - David Vickers, Liz Hughes, Charlotte Murrell, Richard McKenna