A gold medal and Garden of the Year at RHS Chelsea for CPRE
Huge congratulations to our friends at the national CPRE, whose On the Edge garden has been awarded a gold medal at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026 and Garden of the Year in the Show Garden category.
The garden was designed for CPRE’s centenary year by Sarah Eberle – the most decorated garden designer in RHS Chelsea history, and the creator of twenty Chelsea gardens – and the planting team included London-based Emma Northcott. It was created with support from Project Giving Back.
Drawing attention to the countryside at the edges of our towns and cities, On the Edge transforms a neglected urban fringe landscape into a place of abundance, sanctuary and repair. At its heart stands Gaia – a guardian figure carved from a fallen mature tree by chainsaw artist Chris Wood – surrounded by nearly 3,000 plants woven through a snaking dry-stone wall and flowing willow structures.
The judges praised the garden for its emotional impact, craftsmanship and planting, and admired its combination of naturalistic beauty and powerful environmental message.
Sarah Eberle said: ‘I am thrilled to bits to receive Garden of the Year… This garden’s mission is very personal to me. I am a country girl through and through so I embody the same message and beliefs that the Campaign to Protect Rural England and this garden holds.’
A call to protect the countryside
The garden celebrates the fragile, often-forgotten countryside on the fringes of towns and cities – places that connect millions of people to nature, yet remain under constant pressure from development and neglect. Through the accompanying On the Edge campaign, CPRE is calling for every town and city to be surrounded by protected countryside for nature, climate and wellbeing.
After RHS Chelsea, the garden will be relocated to Park Hill in Sheffield, where it will become a permanent community green space, continuing CPRE’s long legacy of campaigning to protect the countryside around towns and cities.
Find out more about the garden at RHS Chelsea 2026 here, and more about the On the Edge campaign here.
