RHS Chelsea's top garden heading to Yorkshire home

8 hours ago

Wendy Middleton,Yorkshireand

Katharine Cowan,Yorkshire

News image — King Charles III explored the Campaign to Protect Rural England's 'On The Edge' garden during his visit to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show

Adrian Dennis/PA King Charles III points to a garden featuring a large wooden sculpture of a woman on her side. The King is speaking to a woman next to him. She is the designer of the garden. — King Charles III explored the Campaign to Protect Rural England's 'On The Edge' garden during his visit to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show

It takes months of planning, careful cultivation and hours of back-breaking work to create Chelsea Flower Show's gardens - and just five days later, prizes have been awarded, crowds have left and the gardens are dismantled. So what happens next? 2026's 'garden of the year' is heading 160 miles north to one of South Yorkshire's most recognisable landmarks.

Sarah Eberle's 'On The Edge' garden, featuring a huge wooden figure of Greek Earth goddess Gaia, scooped the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) event's top award and is now destined for its permanent home on Sheffield's Park Hill estate.

Eberle holds the record as the most decorated designer in the history of Chelsea and has amassed 20 gold medals at RHS shows, with her latest work a collaboration with the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE).

All show gardens require a plan for repurposing, with Gaia now set to rest at the brutalist blocks of flats in the city centre.

"I just think it's the best place for her to go," says Eberle.

"Fringe landscapes are the first touch of nature that people who live in towns and cities have, and they're underprotected. I cannot wait to see it in situ."

A larger than lifesize statue, carved out of wood, of a woman with a crown of leaves. She lies on her side in the middle of shrubs and trees, with her eyes closed as though asleep. There are smaller plants with white and yellow flowers in the foreground. — Sarah Eberle's garden, featuring a wooden Greek Earth goddess Gaia, is heading north from Chelsea to a new home

Discussing the garden's dramatic centrepiece, Eberle says: "She's been carved from a sequoia tree that's supposedly fallen on this site.

"Her hip turns to stone, forms an arch over the garden which then circles round to form this little quiet area at the back."

The gardener says its new home is a good fit for the garden's theme of the importance of green spaces to urban dwellers - along with a key CPRE link.

"Sheffield was our first branch," says CPRE chief executive Roger Mortlock.

"They celebrated their 100th anniversary last year, so we wanted to bring it back to Sheffield."

Rebekah Kennington for Asthma + Lung UK A twilight shot of a garden with a tree at the centre of the picture. A path winds past the tree to a wooden structure beyond. More trees and bushes line the path and a wall in the background. A wooden structure stands in front of the back wall on the right hand side of the picture with the path running in front of it. The tree over lookes a pool in the foreground. The trees and the wooden structure are illuminated with soft uplighting. — The Asthma + Lung UK Breathing Space Garden was awarded a silver medal at RHS Chelsea and is heading to Rotherham

Another of Chelsea's show gardens is also heading to South Yorkshire, with Angus Thompson's Asthma + Lung UK Breathing Space Garden heading to a lung rehabilitation centre in Rotherham.

Steve Barber, who has been a patient at the Breathing Space centre since 2014 and is a member of their gardening club, says the facility teaches you to "breathe again".

The 69-year-old, who has pulmonary fibrosis, continues: "That might sound daft, but that's what they do.

"They show you the importance of keeping fit, which is a struggle because of your respiratory disease.

"So getting out and about in the garden does help with your mental health and your rehab."

Steve Barber A man wearing sunglasses and a blue waterproof jacket smiles into the camera. He is standing outside under a large tree. More trees and an expanse of grass can be seen behind him. — Ex-miner Steve Barber says he hopes the Breathing Space Garden will boost awareness about what the centre does

He adds: "When you get told you've got a disease and there's no cure for it, you've got to live with it, you have to look at other things - and my one thing is my garden."

Barber is hopeful that having a Chelsea garden in Rotherham will boost awareness about the centre so more people with respiratory conditions can benefit.

"I worked for 40 years in the coal mines across South and West Yorkshire," he says.

"I didn't know about this place until the nurse at my GP surgery referred me here. It's been a life-saver."

Barber is part of the team who will install the garden when it arrives in Rotherham this week, with the space set to become a therapeutic space for people living with lung conditions.

Rebekah Kennington/Asthma + Lung UK A close up view of an expanse of wildflowers of different heights and colours stretching into the distance. In the foreground are several plants with clusters of white flat flowers at the top of each green stem. Behind them, in the middle ground in soft focus, are several plants with deep red rounded flowers . Further in the distance are yellow and pink flowers. — Low-allergen plants were selected for the Breathing Space Garden to limit the impact on people with respiratory conditions

The Breathing Space Garden includes accessible paths, graded steps and seated rest points on a path to the middle of the space.

Its centre has a sheltered area for breath-supporting therapies such as yoga and tai chi.

Pine trees - known for natural antioxidant and immune-boosting qualities - were planted in the heart of the garden and low-allergen plants were selected to have a gentler impact on people with respiratory conditions.

"When the idea of the garden took its first breath, Angus and the team have included the voices of our patients and colleagues," says Bob Kirton, managing director for The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust.

"We're excited to receive the garden to Breathing Space and we look forward to welcoming everybody for a formal opening later this year."

A wide landscape shot of a garden. On the left, there is a wooden bench and a canopy to provide shelter. The garden is full of plants and trees. — A children's hospice in South Yorkshire was the recipient of a garden presented at the RHS Flower Show at Wentworth Woodhouse in 2025

Other previous RHS show gardens have settled in Yorkshire, with the 2025 Together Garden from the RHS Flower Show at Wentworth Woodhouse relocated to Bluebell Wood Children's Hospice in Anston.

The 2025 SongBird Survival Garden from Chelsea was installed at the Neighbourhood Network Community Centre in Bransholme, Hull.

Sheffield General Cemetery, a stroke unit at Chapel Allerton Hospital in Leeds and the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield have all also been recipients of RHS gardens under their legacy programme in previous years.

Sally Puddifoot Two rectangular flower beds are visible in a walled garden. A path separates the beds. They contain a mixture of bushes, grasses and flowering plants in red and pink. Thre men in high vis jackets are working on the garden. — The Psalm 27 garden was designed by Ollie Pike and won a silver medal at RHS Tatton in 2023

Sally Puddifoot, landscape conservation manager at Sheffield General Cemetery Trust, says the Psalm 27 Garden designed by Ollie Pike for RHS Tatton in 2023 was a welcome donation.

"The area we installed had become neglected and damaged due to nearby restoration work, so we were looking for a solution when Ollie approached us," she says.

"The Sheffield General Cemetery Trust landscape volunteer team spent weeks weeding, adding new wooden flowerbed edges and digging in lovely homemade compost to the soil before the garden arrived."

"It has proved to be really popular with visitors," she adds.

So what about South Yorkshire's latest award-winning addition?

"I think it's wonderful to see these gardens have a life beyond what they are in Chelsea, because they really mean something for people - and that's so important," Eberle concludes.

RHS Chelsea garden heading to Sheffield

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