Stinging nettles, buttercups, broken crockery and a discarded gnome are not typical features of a Chelsea Flower Show garden. But Sarah Eberle’s ‘On the Edge’ garden, created for the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), aims to highlight the fragile fringe lands where town meets countryside.
The garden’s centrepiece is a fallen sequoia tree carved into a reclining female figure by chainsaw carver Chris Wood, representing Mother Nature. Its arm touches rainwater in a gravel pool, and willow hair flows into a dry stone wall. Eberle hopes the garden conveys how these vulnerable patches serve as sanctuaries for wildlife and communities.
The planting scheme includes native plants often seen as weeds, such as buttercup, wild strawberry, foxglove and stinging nettles. “A weed is only a plant in the wrong place,” said Eberle, who marks her 50th year in horticulture. Ornamental plants, including geranium and crocosmia, appear as fly-tipped waste, reflecting nature’s resilience.
CPRE is calling for public contributions to an interactive map of overlooked edgelands. Elli Moody, CPRE’s director of policy, said: “These places are usually overlooked because they’re not national parks.” The garden will relocate to a housing development in Sheffield.
