The Montessori Children’s Garden won a gold medal at this years’ Chelsea Flower Show. Jody Litgard from Bespoke Outdoor Spaces designed the garden and approached us to donate hard landscaping products to the project.

We’d previously featured his garden in our ‘What To See at RHS Chelsea‘ blog and it was definitely a favourite!

Montessori St Nicholas Garden

The garden celebrates the work Montessori  Centre International do in supporting early year’s education. Also this year commemorates 100 years of Montessori in the UK and therefore the garden echoed the child-focused principles at the heart of the charity.

This garden provides an engaging space for children. Therefore it allows them to learn about the natural world through technology, hands-on stations and brightly coloured planting and structures. Gabion walling is central to the design devised by the Bespoke Outdoor Spaces team and separates the garden into different interactive zones.

Designer Jody Lidgard explained why he incorporated gabions into the garden, saying:

“We wanted somewhere that would welcome nature, somewhere that insects could live. We also wanted something that was detailed but simple to use in an urban and country environment. ”

Designer, Jody Lidgard

These gabions were specially fabricated for the project and our Duck Egg Pebbles specifically chosen for their colour and sizing.

Choosing The Right Product

Before the build began Bespoke Outdoor Spaces received several samples from Stone Warehouse to trial whilst they developed the cages. Our broad range enabled the team to choose a product that filled the gabions well and matched the colour tones of the garden.

Jody chose to use a variety of our decorative aggregates. These included our Duck Egg Pebbles and Cobbles as these are available in various graded sizes. Smaller 15-30mm pebbles were used in the main gabion cages. The larger 30-50mm pebbles and 60-120mm cobbles were used to create decorative features in the sunken gravelled area.

Visitors could discover a sunken gravelled patio space towards the rear of the multi leveled garden. This was accessed from bright pink stairs from which guests were immersed in a colourful and stimulating environment.

This included gabion waterfalls; exotic glass sculptures and stunning outdoor seating and fabrics from Paulus and Brown Furniture. Additionally our Nordic Quartz 8-12mm surfaced the area which gave it a contrasting pale finish and complemented the multiple textures found in the garden.

Watch our video below which includes an interview with Jody Lidgard, speaking to us about his fantastic garden.