Yesterday I had the privilege of attending the RHS Chelsea Flower Show as a guest of Innovation Norway. For the first time, the Norwegian Embassy sponsored a show garden in partnership with Norwegian wood firm, Kebony, and British designer Darren Saines.

Darren’s design philosophy is to create a “nature-inspired garden grown to flourish in and resist the diverse Nordic climate with plants chosen for their unusual natural shapes and structures.”  The garden has been designed to reflect the unique landscape of Norway with natural stone from Lundhs, with a centrepiece of a dramatic 40-year-old stunted pine tree set in natural larvikitt – Norwegian national stone – rock that has been “rescued” and sailed to London.

The garden features a wonderful outdoor living space, a dream outdoor ‘living cube’. The cube is designed to adapt to all the seasons as an extension to the home overlooking a tranquil pool to represent the Norwegian fjords. It’s also built with sustainable materials using the revolutionary hardwood alternative from Kebony.

In the end, the garden was awarded a credible Silver Gilt medal by the judges. I particularly liked seeing the combination of nature and human interaction. The result is an inspiring way to enjoy outdoor living, whatever the season. This is what the Norwegians are so good at, and I think it came across well at Chelsea. Darren is currently living in Norway running his garden design business, and so he is likely to know well importance of outdoor living to the Norwegians.  The garden was also resilient to the recent cold snap right before the start of the Show, demonstrating the power of working with nature and not against it.

My favourite flowers of the garden were the lovely blue Scabiosa caucasia giving it a meadow-like feel and the Saxifraga cotyledon – Norway’s national plant.

 To find out more about Kebony and the garden visit www.kebony.no and www.naturallynorway.com