RHS Tatton Show Garden 2013 - Gold medal award
2013 Tatton Park Flower Show
To celebrate the Society’s 20th anniversary we designed and built a large Show garden at the RHS Tatton Park Flower Show. The garden was called Reflections of Japan and was designed by Graham Hardman, sponsored by Bury Hospice and built by members of the JGS. It was awarded a Gold medal in the Large Show Garden category. The garden was designed in two halves, reflected about the central line. One side was designed in Japanese style, the other using the same spatial layout but treated in a more English style. The aim was to show the public how Japanese ways of using space can be adapted to create interesting gardens that don’t look overtly Japanese. After the Show all the materials and plants were reused to create a Japanese garden at Bury Hospice.
RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2004 - Gold medal award
2004 Chelsea Flower Show
The JGS was awarded a Gold Medal in the Show Garden category with a garden called Shizen – “The Japanese Way”. It was designed by Maureen Busby and built by members of the Japanese Garden Society, many from the South East region, with the help of their contractors and sponsors, including a team from Beechings Landscapes.
Shizen, “The Japanese Way”, illustrates the unique way in which the Japanese people seek to be in harmony with nature in their daily lives by using sliding shoji screens to frame different views of the garden. The garden was designed to show that authenticity does not need any of the ornaments or artifacts often associated with Japanese gardens. A dry stream runs under the house and flows into a shallow pool with a rain chain. A three rock arrangement in gravel with clipped shrubs and contoured lawn bring precision and space to the small garden. A stepping stone path leads from the veranda through trees to the shakkei (borrowed scenery) of the woodland.
RHS Hampton Court Flower Show 2002 - Gold medal & best in show
2002 Hampton Court Flower Show
The JGS Maple Courtyard (momiji tsuboniwa) was designed by Maureen Busby and was awarded a Gold Medal and Best in Show in the Small Garden category. It sought to evoke the atmosphere of a restrained and serene tsuboniwa, or courtyard garden, in the Kyoto style. Such gardens are viewing gardens, entered only with the mind. They are an art form shaped as much by the Japanese landscapes and architecture, as by Shinto, Buddhism and the master gardeners who established the principles of assymetry, minimalism and harmony.
RHS Tatton Park Flower Show 2001 - Silver medal award
2001 Tatton Park Flower Show
A western interpretation of a Japanese tea garden, designed by Graham Hardman and built by members from the North West Region assisted by students of Knowsley College. It was awarded a Silver Medal. The aim of the garden was to show how an enclosed courtyard could be treated in Japanese style. Entitled ‘The Tea Garden’, this was a modern interpretation for a tiny courtyard (6m by 4m). A tea house was suggested by shoji screen panels, and a waiting arbour by the bench under the entrance gateway. The garden between them included a stepping stone path, water basin and lantern, and a bridge over a dry stream that divided the space. Planting was informal, as appropriate for a tea garden, and mainly consisted of evergreen shrubs with an Acer suitably framed in the corner. Being a show garden, public access was important: the side fencing allowed the public to get very close to the garden, even to lean on it, and when standing back, to see views framed by posts and roof.
