Awards for top garden designs at BBC Gardeners' World Live
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- 4 min read
BBC Gardeners’ World Live and Good Food Show is on from 18 – 21 June at the NEC Birmingham.
Review by Ann Evans
For many visitors to the BBC Gardeners' World Live Show today and over the weekend, they will be heading straight for the beautiful show gardens, to see what the experts have come up with this year. Well, they won’t be disappointed as a dozen gardens and showcase gardens plus 30 beautiful borders are on view to explore and gain inspiration from.
Following the judging yesterday, prior to the show opening, the Best Garden for 2026 went to The Garden of Evolution, Designed by Professor Alice Roberts and David Stevens with Landscapers Designit Landscapes. With its sandy pathway, rock formations, cascading water, and dramatic planting, the Garden of Evolution had taken inspiration from 500 million years of life on earth, evolving and adapting. Alice Roberts will be talking about the garden to Nikki Chapman and Kevin Smith over the weekend.
For one garden designer, there was a big surprise in store. Matt Bettison of Little Jardin, based in Northamptonshire is no stranger to Gardeners’ World Live, but in the past, with a background in construction, he has built gardens for the show. However, he wanted to design and build a garden to show what can be done in a small 4 metre x 4 metre space. So he designed Greenhouse Noir and at the awards ceremony he walked away with not just one major award, but two! Best Construction Landscaper 2026 and Best Showcase Garden 2026, plus his garden was awarded Platinum in the judging.
“This is a really big shock!” Matt admitted. “I was not expecting this, I’m really critical of my own work. And to get the award for Best Construction Landscaper is amazing because my background is in construction so that means a lot. I have never designed and built before, where I’ve been responsible for it all! It’s been a real learning curve and I’m so grateful to the team helping me with the planting, their knowledge has really helped me.”
Another new designer is Rebecca Williams from Essex who was thrilled to be awarded Gold by the judges for her showcase garden Sensed, Not Seen. Amazingly, this is Rebecca’s first garden at the show, her normal job being a children’s nurse. But after coming to the show last year, she was inspired to try and design a garden herself.
She sent her design into the show and to her delight, it was accepted. “The BBC have been so supportive,” said Rebecca who explained that her vision was of a garden for blind and visually impaired visitors to connect deeply through nature, using their other senses. “I have had this idea on my mind every day for the past year, so the opening will be a big moment - particularly as I have family and friends coming every day."
"The inspiration for the garden was my dad who was blind, and who has sadly now passed away; so this is really special. It was through him encouraging us to look beyond the sense of sight and use our other senses – taste, touch, smell and sound. The centrepiece of the garden does all that. Around the garden, the planting is mainly perennials, because they are low maintenance, I've also used bold contrasting colours for people visually impaired, and different textures."
Whilst working on her design at home, Rebecca found her sensory garden just kept getting bigger and bigger. “It’s increased in size three times! The reason being the pathway around the garden. I wanted it wide enough for people with guide dogs.”
Rebecca added that she has been working away from her home and family since 11 June, when she arrived on site there was just a simple plot of bare soil. Teaming up with Ned Harvey (Ned Harvey Gardens) who was recommended to her when she asked around, they have both worked incredible hard in getting everything landscaped and planted. All that was left was the excitement of the show opening, and finally family and friends arriving to see and her first ever show garden – inspired by her dad.
It will be a big day too for Julie Haylock whose Beautiful Border is one of 30 created for the show. Hers being Back to my Roots, featuring childhood favourite Winnie the Pooh but also inspired by her own personal story. After 30 years with Avon and Somerset Constabulary, Julie swapped her ID badge for gardening boots to follow a brand-new dream. She took a garden design course for her own pleasure, and two weeks after finishing that, her design was accepted by BBC Gardeners' World.
"It's funny, people were asking me how long I'd been gardening and garden designing," said Julie, "and I had to admit, it was only two weeks!"
With husband Andrew at her side, the pair work as a team, her placing the plants, Andrew planting them. “It’s a tried and tested way which works for the two of us,” said Julie. “The theme of the show is ‘Once Upon A Time’, which fits in with us, as our business has now been going for 10 years, this is our 10th show garden, and incorporating Winnie the Pooh, he celebrates his 100th birthday this year. So the theme really just fits the garden.
“The garden is all nectar-rich planting to attract the bees, such as Lavender, Borage, Geranium Rozanne, Salvia Caradonna and others - some which like the shaded areas, and others which are sun worshippers.”
With the hard work all done, and the judging over, both Julie and Andrew are now looking forward to the opening of the show, and meeting up with friends travelling from Yeovil in Somerset and of course meeting the general public.
BBC Gardeners’ World Live and the Good Food Show, run until Sunday 21 June 2026. For tickets and full details visit: https://www.bbcgardenersworldlive.com/
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