Peter Dowdall: No fake grass and an end to peat as sustainability moves front and centre at Chelsea
Peter Dowdall: 'RHS Chelsea Flower Show is changing things from the ground up'. Picture: John Allen
Sustainability goals are taking centre stage at this year's Chelsea Flower Show, taking place in London this week.
Organisers, the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), are working to make all show operations are sustainable.
From 2023, all single-use plastics are banned in RHS front-of-house operations and by 2025, the same will apply at the back of the house and behind the scenes. No artificial grass, plastic turf, or fake flowers are allowed anywhere on site at Chelsea.
By 2025 all RHS Shows including Chelsea will be 100% peat free, and for the last several years, no waste from the event has gone to landfill.
But it’s about much more than that, it’s not all “greenwashing”, or for the cameras and press releases either. RHS Chelsea Flower Show is changing things from the ground up, working with sustainability consultants and a team that is working throughout the planning and build-up phases of the show to ensure that it is a completely sustainable event.
The environmental impact of a show such as this, where dozens of show gardens are created all for one week, and hundreds of exhibitors travel from far and wide to showcase their creations, is substantial in itself. Add to that the thousands who will visit over the week, and you have an event which can have a large impact.
“The RHS is making every effort to work with contractors from day one to minimize any environmental impact” said show manager, Gemma Lake.
All the power at the show now comes from renewable resources. In previous years, contractors brought in private individual generators — now that has changed to all exhibitors and show gardens having access to renewably generated power from day one of the build-up.
“It’s about working with the contractors and exhibitors,” said Gemma. The RHS, which works closely with government agencies and policymakers in the UK, is striving to see where all processes and elements of the show can be improved and beyond that, helping to educate how garden visitors and contractors alike can bring these messages and practices into their real world once the show is over.
Use of concrete at the show has been much reduced, and where it is being used, it is chemical-free. Reclaimed materials are evident in many of the show gardens, and so too are eco-friendly materials being used for many hard landscaping elements such as bricks and walls.
As Gemma points out, this sustainability message is not just for the week of the show, but is focused on the entire year-long build-up, and also in the gardening and horticulture industry at large.
In keeping with this ethos, the Product of the Year at Chelsea was replaced in 2021 with the Sustainable Product of the Year, which this year was won by Lindum Wildflower Turf who have developed a ready-grown turf which contains a balanced mixture of wildflowers, herbs, and flowering perennials growing in a moisture retentive plastic free biodegradable felt, to provide an instant wildflower area.
Another finalist for the Sustainable Product of The Year which really appealed to me was Willsow, the world's first plantable children's book, that encourages children to spend time in nature by engaging them with storytelling and asking them to plant their own main characters.
Being 100% biodegradable, it teaches children about sustainability in a subtle but engaging way. The seeds embedded in the pages are non-GMO and grow in a variety of shapes and sizes.
