Bee Positive, Bee Kind, Bee Aware

Designer: Rick Ford, a Weston-Super-Mare based garden designer and Katie Gentle, who runs a garden maintenance and design business 

Sponsor: Bees for Development, a Monmouth-based international charity working to alleviate poverty through beekeeping.

 Gold Medal Winner

A pollinator-friendly garden for an environmentally-aware family lies at the heart of Rick Ford and Katie Gentle’s design for the Bees for Development ‘Bee Positive, Bee Kind, Bee Aware’ garden.The space includes areas for relaxation, growing fruit and vegetables, keeping bees and cooking.

The garden, sponsored by Monmouth-based Bees for Development, will contain lots of pollinator-friendly flowers and make use of recycled and repurposed materials wherever possible.

Key features of the garden include a reclaimed scaffold pergola with a green roof that will accommodate the kitchen, reclaimed wooden seating by the bee hives, still water in an upcycled trough and raised vegetable beds.

The garden will be bordered by hawthorn hedges and planted with a mix of pollen-rich plants including foxgloves, fennel and thyme. There will be three trees providing habitats for insects.

All the items used for the garden will be repurposed for future garden projects.

Rick Ford is based in Weston-Super-Mare, where he runs Gardens by Rick Ford. He took part in the RHS Malvern Spring Festival in 2008 and 2022, being awarded silver-gilt medals on both occasions.

Katie Gentle is based in Exeter, Devon, where he runs her garden maintenance and design business ‘Katie Gentle Garden Design’. Katie has over 25 years’ experience in horticulture.