The annual festival of flowers returned with rewilding and naturalistic planting dominating this year's show gardens. The restorative power of nature on our well-being was an overriding theme, with Horatio's Garden, a wheelchair-accessible garden designed to be a healing sanctuary for patients with spinal injuries, winning best show garden.
 
Chelsea reflected the revival for growing your own produce with many show gardens combining ornamental and edible plants into their design. Winning a silver gilt medal, the Savills Garden, designed by Mark Gregory, was the first working kitchen garden in the show's history. Blurring the lines between flowers and vegetables, Gregory demonstrates how you can create a beautiful yet functional garden, with edimentals (edible ornamentals) filling borders alongside foxgloves and peonies. The focus of the design was to champion seasonal eating. Visitors were given a 'plot-to-plate' experience with the chef in residence, Michelin-starred Sam Buckley, cooking with produce picked straight from the raised beds.
 
With sustainability forefront of the design, fly ash was used to form the garden's structure instead of concrete. Gregory also chose reclaimed landscaping materials such as reclaimed pantiles, Yorkshire flagstone and bricks from Salvo Code member The Reclaimed Brick Company.
 
Another show garden that integrated reuse was the Samaritans' Listening Garden. Built using 85% reclaimed materials the designer, Darren Hawkes, salvaged from demolition sites, scrap yards and farmyards. The garden communicates the journey from crisis to hope experienced by many who seek help from the Samaritans. Hawkes, an award-winning designer and volunteer listener at the charity, was inspired by Kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold, silver, or platinum. He spent many months sourcing the materials before shaping and polishing them to create new textures and forms. Hawkes explained the process: "I really wanted to take a material that was discarded and see if I could breathe new life into it." He continued, "The path towards recovery isn't always straightforward. I hope people who go to the show might look at the garden and immediately recognise something that isn't pretending life is perfect."
 
A more natural approach to gardening with less formality and perfection was the overriding vibe of this year's show. Weeds or wildflowers? A contentious subject in the gardening community at the moment. The RHS signalled their preference, with a third of the show gardens containing wild plants/weeds such as brambles and thistles.
 
Designer of the Royal Entomological Society Garden, Tom Massey, rebrands weeds as "resilient plants". Massey took inspiration from brownfield sites for his garden, including dandelions, knapweed and hawthorn, as well as non-native plants to provide a variety of food sources for pollinators. A floating tree sculpture and standing stumps, supplied by Salvo Code member Ashwells Reclaimed Timber, provide habitats for insects.
 
A partly demolished house that nature has reclaimed is the focal point of the gold medal-winning Centrepoint Garden by Cleve West. The design showcases nature-first gardening, an ethos the designer believes we all need to embrace, as he said, "The only way we can really save ourselves is to acknowledge the fact we're not the most important species in the world."
 
A 2021 study by scientists at London's Natural History Museum revealed nearly half of the UK's biodiversity has been lost over the centuries; we were ranked in the bottom 10% of the world (the worst among G7 nations). Climate change is expected to deepen the decline over the coming decades, with scientists suggesting that if current trends continue, some species will be lost altogether. The rebranding of "weeds" is part of the growing moment to mitigate this biodiversity crisis. Over the last couple of years, the RHS, the largest gardening charity in the UK, has moved away from releasing "pest" lists to championing wildlife, including slugs, ants and ladybirds.
 
UK gardens cover around 433,000 hectares (4,330 sq km) of land, about three times Greater London's size. No matter the size of your garden, you make a difference by allowing nature to govern your gardening practices. Our collective action in our backyards, gardens and balconies could tremendously impact the natural world. 
 
If the Chelsea Flower Show has inspired you to make some sustainable changes to your garden here are a few tips;
 
Attract Pollinators
 
Seduce pollinating insects such as bees, butterflies and moths by planting a variety of flowers. Ensure you have continual blooms throughout the year by including plants flowering at different times. The charity Butterfly Conservation recommends planting buddleia, verbena and lavender to entice.
 
Run wild
 
Allow space for nature to reclaim by designating an area of your garden to become overgrown. Try not to be too tidy. Leave some perennials uncut over winter or a pile of leaves to provide food and habitat for many species. Introduce more native plants into your garden. They are often more resistant to "pests" and will require less maintenance. 
 
Be a hospitable host
 
Give nature a helping hand with some shelter, from bird boxes to bee hives. Take a cue from the Royal Entomological Society's Garden by leaving a small log pile for insects to habitat. Add a natural water feature; a pond provides a haven for amphibians and insects and drinking water for birds and mammals. If you don't have the space for a pond, try adding a shallow dish of water.
 
Grow a living pantry
 
If you are starting out, Nikki Barker, a senior horticultural adviser at the RHS, advises growing vegetables, such as chillis and tomatoes, with a reliable heavy crop to make it more cost-effective. If you are short on space at home, you can use vertical planters. In the Savills Garden, they attached army surplus catering trays to the wall to hold pots of chillies, basil and tomatoes, lying them on drainage granules so they could water the tray instead of the pots.
 
Protect from pollution
 
Poor air quality from pollution affects one in three people (33%) in the UK. An RHS study found the hairy-leafed Cotoneaster franchetii the best shrub for cleaning air polluted by car exhausts. The research explored how our gardens and green spaces can ease environmental problems such as air pollution, flooding and heatwaves. The study also found hawthorn and privet help ease intense summer rainfalls and reduce localised flooding.
 
Choose reclaimed
 
Reclaimed landscaping materials are more environmentally friendly and provide an authentic character that can not be compared with new materials. Adding a garden antique to your design can add interest all year round, especially if covered with lichens or moss.