Chelsea Flower Show garden inspired by UCL East

Following the success of UCL's City Mill Skate research inititiave, which led to the building of a skate park next to the One Pool Street building on our UCL East campus, UCL was invited to advise on a garden for the Flower Show.

The result is called Planet Good Earth in which a granite skate ramp at the heart of the garden creates an area for skateboarding and other wheeled sports, as well as communal space for get-togethers and workshops for all ages, supporting physical activity, positive relationships in a natural and engaging setting.

This directly echos the ethos and activity at UCL's City Mill Pool Street on our UCL East campus on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, a temporary skate facility that opened to the public in 2022.

The same designers that worked on our skate park, Betongpark who construct unique spaces for skateboarding and urban activities, have collaborated on the Chelsea Flower Show garden too.

The garden takes its name from Planet Good Earth, which is a fun, playful food education initiative that inspires the next generation of gardeners to be part of the environmental movement worldwide. 

Earlier this month teams from Planet Good Earth and UCL's City Mill Skate initiative joined up with the community for a day of skating and planting on the skate park to enhance its value to skaters and to support the biodiversity of the Park.

Visitors to the Chelsea Flower Show will learn how skateboarding and horticulture can contribute to green initiatives and healthier landscapes and how this integrated approach to growing and recreation can work together to positively impact disadvantaged communities nationwide.

After the show, the garden will be relocated to Hay Castle Trust in Hay-on-Wye where it will be supported by Black Mountains College, an imaginative education centre with a mission to promote ecological action and adaptation.

The garden will form the core of a new community-focused educational space that will create fun and flexible healthy learning spaces for young people. The informal play spaces and sensory garden will be open outside school hours, becoming a place where the whole neighbourhood comes together.

Sam Wilkinson, UCL Head of Public Art and Cultural Engagement for UCL East, said:

"The partnership between our City Mill Skate research team, Betongpark and Planet Good Earth represents everything that we hoped the City Mill Skate collaborative initiative would achieve. We're especially thrilled too for the amazing young people who have been involved in inspiring and creating the Chelsea Flower Show garden."

The Chelsea Flower Show runs from 21st to 25th May 2024.

Explore the Planet Good Earth garden at the Chelsea Flower Show