For five days every year in May, the RHS Chelsea Flower Show showcases the finest examples of horticultural excellence, created by the best garden designers from across the globe, who apply to create show gardens. The applications are assessed by a committee of horticultural experts who select around 20 designs. Only very special gardens make it to the show creating the impact and spectacle for which Chelsea is renowned.

In 1999, commissioned by The Evening Standard, we created the Gold Medal winning ‘Chef’s Roof garden’. Envisaged as an urban space on a roof terrace (or in a small back garden), the garden’s planting scheme used only edible plants that could be grown in containers. Inspired by the great kitchen gardens such as Vilandry, the garden aimed to encourage people to grow produce in their own gardens or terraces. At one end of the garden was the kitchen, a simple rectangular structure, slightly raised and enclosed by glass walls, allowing maximum visibility to the garden. Freshly picked plants were cooked and served by the chef on a large outdoor dining table in the middle of the garden. Extending out from the table, rows of large, deep, steel containers were planted with flowers, herbs, and vegetables, their formal geometry providing an order to the garden area reminiscent of the great kitchen gardens. A steel framework hung with white curtains further delineated the garden space, also providing the plants protection from the elements. A moat surrounded the kitchen, giving it the illusion of floating and adding a sense of tranquillity, the sound of water complementing the scent of herbs and other plants.

Our 2004 entry ‘Restaurant in a Garden', designed for Laurent Perrier, also won the Gold Medal. Set in an atmospheric garden to enhance the diner’s experience and inspired by mid-century modern pavilions, Conran & Partners developed a minimal structure in which the chef could prepare meals. A working kitchen was provided within the pavilion, with an adjacent herb garden providing the chef with fresh produce. A terrace allowed the chef to entertain guests. The garden included elliptical forms and pathways and curvilinear ‘Butterfly’ chairs, providing a strong contrast to the rectilinear pavilion. Both the chosen plants and flowers and the pavilion were white, unifying the natural and the manmade.

In 2005 our Peace Garden, marking the sixtieth anniversary of the end of WWII, won the Bronze Medal. Designed for the Imperial War Museum, the garden took peace and remembrance as its themes. A stone wall backdrop was inscribed with the word ‘peace’ in over 40 different languages. Water falling from this wall into a stream, flowed over pebbles into a pool, the water evoking tears and the moving water symbolising the washing away of grief into the tranquillity of a reflective pool. The pebbles in the stream and pool represented the 500,000 British and Commonwealth lives lost in the war. The garden featured 2 sculptures; a wooden dovecote with ceramic doves (the traditional emblem of peace) by a student of the Royal College of Art and a sculpture entitled ‘Mourning Athene’, serving as an eternal symbol of women grieving for those who have died in war. Seating was provided allowing different generations to sit together and remember.