Kate Middleton reveals four features of her Chelsea garden just hours before the gates open

Emma-Louise Pritchard
Photo credit: Kensington Palace
Photo credit: Kensington Palace

From Country Living

In exciting news, where the royal family combine perfectly with the Chelsea Flower Show 2019, Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, will co-design a garden at this year's event. The garden – a collaboration between the Duchess, the RHS and landscape architects, Andree Davies and Adam White – is called Back to Nature.

The Duchess has been posting behind-the-scenes pictures of the garden coming to life throughout the building process on Instagram. The latest comes on the eve of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, which opens its doors to press and royalty on Monday 20th May.

The photos are accompanied by a caption which reveals the four main features we can expect to see in the design. Here's everything we know so far...

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👀 We invite you to take a sneak peek at The Duchess of Cambridge’s #RHSChelsea ‘Back to Nature’ Garden! The woodland wilderness garden aims to get people back to nature, and highlight the benefits of the natural world on our mental and physical wellbeing. Speaking ahead of @The_RHS garden unveiling, The Duchess of Cambridge said: “In recent years I have focussed much of my work on the early years, and how instrumental they are for outcomes later in life. I believe that spending time outdoors when we are young can play a role in laying the foundations for children to become happy, healthy adults.” Some features of the #ChelseaFlowerShow garden include: 1. A swing seat hanging below the garden’s centrepiece, a high platform tree house, encouraging creative play and discovery for all generations. 2. The high platform tree house is inspired by a bird or animal nest and provides a wonderful place to retreat and look out through the trees. The treehouse is made from chestnut, with hazel, stag horn oak and larch nest cladding. 3/4. The garden is aiming to inspire interaction with the natural environment through its multi-sensory, green and blue plant scheme. The garden will be filled with incredible edibles, plants for craft activities, forest scents and a diverse range of plants, shrubs and trees of different heights and textures. The garden forms part of Her Royal Highness’s ongoing work on early childhood development and her mission to support efforts that give every child the best possible start in life. The Duchess has committed to making early childhood development the focus of her work in the years to come, and believes that providing children with the opportunity to spend time outdoors can play an important role.

A post shared by Kensington Palace (@kensingtonroyal) on May 18, 2019 at 2:31pm PDT

What is Kate Middleton's Chelsea garden about?

The Duchess will team with the RHS to create their 2019 Chelsea entry, Back to Nature. The garden aims to celebrate the countryside and encourage families and communities to rediscover nature in its raw form and feel the mental and physical health benefits it has to offer.

The garden is intended to inspire future generations to get into gardening and outdoor activities. The Duchess will be collaborating with the RHS and landscape architects, Andree Davies and Adam White.

What will Kate's Back to Nature Chelsea garden look like?

We can expect the garden to be heavily inspired by woodland, as it attempts to encapsulate the wonder and magic of the great outdoors we loved so much as children, but can often lose touch with as adults.

Photo credit: Twitter|@THE_RHS
Photo credit: Twitter|@THE_RHS

The Duchess has revealed the four main features of the garden on Instagram, which are:

1. A swing seat

Kate's Instagram caption reads: "A swing seat hanging below the garden’s centrepiece, a high platform tree house, encouraging creative play and discovery for all generations."

2. A treehouse

Kate's Instagram caption reads: "The high platform tree house is inspired by a bird or animal nest and provides a wonderful place to retreat and look out through the trees. The treehouse is made from chestnut, with hazel, stag horn oak and larch nest cladding."

3. A green and blue colour scheme

Kate's Instagram caption reads: "The garden is aiming to inspire interaction with the natural environment through its multi-sensory, green and blue plant scheme.

Photo credit: Twitter|@THE_RHS
Photo credit: Twitter|@THE_RHS

4. A creative planting scheme

Kate's Instagram caption reads: "The garden will be filled with incredible edibles, plants for craft activities, forest scents and a diverse range of plants, shrubs and trees of different heights and textures."

The Instagram post which revealed the details of the garden concludes its caption with:

"The garden forms part of Her Royal Highness’s ongoing work on early childhood development and her mission to support efforts that give every child the best possible start in life.

"The Duchess has committed to making early childhood development the focus of her work in the years to come, and believes that providing children with the opportunity to spend time outdoors can play an important role."

A time line of behind-the-scenes pictures posted by the Duchess of Cambridge

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The Duchess of Cambridge’s ‘Back to Nature Garden’ at #RHSChelsea, designed with Andrée Davies and Adam White, and @The_RHS aims to get people back to nature, highlighting the benefits of the natural world on our mental and physical wellbeing. The garden hopes to trigger memories of time spent in nature, and encourage others to go out and create new experiences in the great outdoors. Visit our profile to see more behind the scenes of preparations and planning for the Garden...

A post shared by Kensington Palace (@kensingtonroyal) on Feb 9, 2019 at 4:02pm PST

View this post on Instagram

🍃 One week to go until #RHSChelsea - when The Duchess of Cambridge’s ‘Back to Nature’ Garden will officially be revealed! Over the past few months, The Duchess and landscape architects Davies White have visited plant nurseries, suppliers and specialist craftspeople who have been growing and building elements of the garden ready for Chelsea. The Duchess has worked with @the_rhs and Davies White to design and build the garden, to highlight how being active in nature can positively impact our physical and mental health. The garden has a natural woodland feel and contains lots of unique design features to inspire families to get outside and explore nature together. Visit the link in our bio to find out more.

A post shared by Kensington Palace (@kensingtonroyal) on May 13, 2019 at 8:29am PDT

View this post on Instagram

👀 We invite you to take a sneak peek at The Duchess of Cambridge’s #RHSChelsea ‘Back to Nature’ Garden! The woodland wilderness garden aims to get people back to nature, and highlight the benefits of the natural world on our mental and physical wellbeing. Speaking ahead of @The_RHS garden unveiling, The Duchess of Cambridge said: “In recent years I have focussed much of my work on the early years, and how instrumental they are for outcomes later in life. I believe that spending time outdoors when we are young can play a role in laying the foundations for children to become happy, healthy adults.” Some features of the #ChelseaFlowerShow garden include: 1. A swing seat hanging below the garden’s centrepiece, a high platform tree house, encouraging creative play and discovery for all generations. 2. The high platform tree house is inspired by a bird or animal nest and provides a wonderful place to retreat and look out through the trees. The treehouse is made from chestnut, with hazel, stag horn oak and larch nest cladding. 3/4. The garden is aiming to inspire interaction with the natural environment through its multi-sensory, green and blue plant scheme. The garden will be filled with incredible edibles, plants for craft activities, forest scents and a diverse range of plants, shrubs and trees of different heights and textures. The garden forms part of Her Royal Highness’s ongoing work on early childhood development and her mission to support efforts that give every child the best possible start in life. The Duchess has committed to making early childhood development the focus of her work in the years to come, and believes that providing children with the opportunity to spend time outdoors can play an important role.

A post shared by Kensington Palace (@kensingtonroyal) on May 18, 2019 at 2:31pm PDT

Why has the Duchess chosen to take part in the Chelsea Flower Show 2019?

Well-known for her passion to raise awareness of mental health with the Heads Together charity, Kate will combine that ambition with her love of gardening.

It won't be the first time we see Kate support a green-fingered cause, following her visit to the Islington Community Garden today (15th January).

Photo credit: Neil Mockford - Getty Images
Photo credit: Neil Mockford - Getty Images

The royal family also support the Scouts, Farms for City Children and, of course, the Prince's Trust Fund.

Sue Biggs, RHS Director General, said: "We could not be more thrilled, or feel more honoured, that The Duchess of Cambridge has co-designed our RHS Garden at Chelsea Flower Show this year, with Award Winning Landscape Architects, Andree Davies and Adam White.

"For over 200 years the RHS has been championing the power of gardening and growing plants for the environment, for health and wellbeing and to help people of all ages, from all backgrounds, to learn and grow.

"So to have The Duchess advocating this with us, and to be continuing our partnership with NHS England will, we’re sure, further highlight the powerful benefit that access to gardens, nature and growing plants can have for all our health and happiness."

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