Concrete 2.0

Designer: Ian McBain

Sponsor: Red Rhino Crushers

Built By: Pickwell Paving

Medal Award: Silver-Gilt

Who is this garden for? 
A young professional couple with a keen interest in sustainability.

Where is the garden set? 
A semi-urban domestic setting in the East Midlands.

Who or what is the design inspiration?
The garden is inspired by the urgent need for more sustainable and responsible approaches to domestic garden design and construction.

Plant List (subject to change)
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Key Plants
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Further Detail

The Concrete 2.0 garden, supported by Red Rhino Crushers, showcases the use of sustainable and reclaimed materials to create a versatile, dynamic, and beautiful outdoor space.

Sustainable paving, produced in the UK with cement-free concrete and recycled aggregates, is featured, alongside recycled and reclaimed materials such as agricultural water troughs, scaffold-board boundary screens, and rain channels made from reclaimed angle iron.

The garden emphasises responsible water management, with surface water captured by the studio roof used to feed water features and rainwater returning directly to the ground via wide channels of loose recycled aggregates.

After the exhibit, the paving and water pools will be relocated to a private domestic garden in the East Midlands, while trees, plants, and other materials will be reused in future garden builds.

Sustainability 

• More than 60% of the total space is devoted to planting.
• Sustainable UK-produced cement-free concrete paving created with recycled aggregates.
• Recycled & reclaimed materials used wherever possible.
• All surface water returned directly to the ground or the water features.

Meet the Designer 

Ian McBain MSGD

Ian, an experienced garden designer situated in the East Midlands of England, has been crafting beautiful and practical gardens since 2004. As a fully registered member of the Society of Garden Designers, this marks his debut RHS Show Garden.

Ian says: “The Concrete 2.0 garden is a wonderful opportunity for us to highlight the need to specify reclaimed and recycled materials in our gardens. It also seeks to promote the responsible use of water, but above all it urges us all to rethink our paving choices. Mass carbon-heavy importation of porcelain and natural stone paving is not sustainable, and we must look at UK-produced options. Sustainable cement-free concrete products will undoubtedly be part of the solution, and this garden aims to show that they can be used in an attractive and practical manner.”