National Forest to rehome Joe Perkins’s The Meta Garden After The RHS Chelsea Flower Show

6th Apr 2022

We’re delighted to announce that following our partnership with the Meta Garden: Growing the Future at RHS Chelsea in May, the garden will be rehomed in the National Forest. 

The Meta Garden - Growing The Future

 

The Meta Garden: Growing the Future will highlight how trees can help combat climate change, enhance biodiversity, and create a greener future for everyone. After its initial appearance at the Chelsea Flower Show (24-28 May), the garden will be rehomed at Conkers Discovery Centre in Moira, in the heart of the National Forest, for everyone to enjoy. 

This is a rare opportunity for us to show how the garden’s resources are being reused, to boost the local economy, improve the environment and offer a new outdoor learning space in the Heart of the National Forest.    

The rehoming will allow many more people to experience the RHS garden and help them connect to the National Forest, as we work to create a Forest for everyone. The rehoming will also support our community woodlands and society work, with the garden being cared for by local volunteers who will plant trees, shrubs and flowers in the garden at the RHS Show, and maintain the garden when it is relocated to Conkers. 

We will also create an interactive outdoor learning space adjacent to the garden to help with the ambition for every child in the National Forest to have access to outdoor learning as part of their education at pre-school, primary and secondary schools.    

The garden will be included in the Queen’s Green Canopy initiative, which is focused on planting trees to celebrate The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. Inspired by the mission to support British woodlands and forests for future generations, The Meta Garden: Growing the Future has been designed to highlight the crucial relationship between soil, fungi and plants, which together form the basis of resilient forest ecosystems.  

The immersive garden will feature a complex pavilion structure that represents the mycelium networks that connect and support woodland life and a central seating area sunken within the environment rather than imposed above it.   

Meta’s VP of Northern Europe, Steve Hatch, said: “The Meta Garden: Growing the Future champions nature-based solutions to climate change and shows how we can protect our wonderful British woodlands.  

“We’ve seen a boom in enthusiastic plant-lovers across the UK during the pandemic. Individuals and communities coming together on places like Facebook Groups and Instagram to share their tips, get inspired, and educate themselves on how we can all learn from nature to make more sustainable decisions for our planet. We're delighted to be able to be partnering with the National Forest to rehome the garden so that millions of people can enjoy it for years to come.” 

John Everitt, Chief Executive of the National Forest Company, commented: “This is a forest of people as much as the trees. It is the people that have come together over the past 30 year to create the Forest, like nature’s mycelium network that underpins our biodiversity.  We believe in the power of trees to transform people’s lives as well as the landscape, and will be excited to see Joe Perkins’s Meta garden relocated here. It will provide a lasting inspiration for our communities and visitors, and a showcase for how we can all live more sustainably.” 

The partnership between Meta and the National Forest is shining a light on how much more can be achieved when we all join together to take on shared challenges like climate change. The rehoming of the garden will help people to connect with each other to better understand, care for and enjoy the National Forest. 

Work to rehome the garden at Conkers is set to begin in June, with the unveiling of the finished garden expected over the summer. Regular updates on the garden and the lead up to the RHS Chelsea Flower show will be posted here, so keep returning to find out more.