The SeeAbility Garden
Site RHW1
Designer Darren Hawkes
www.seeability.org
Designing his first RHS Chelsea Flower Show garden, Darren Hawkes will create a garden
for SeeAbility and Coutts, which celebrates the fact that life can still be enriched by maximising limited vision and other senses The SeeAbility Garden has straight paths leading to three interweaving circles made from different materials. Together with handmade opaque glass screens this garden conceptually offers sighted people a view of a range of sight conditions.
Plants have been chosen to enable partially sighted people to distinguish these through the
use of silhouette and strong colour contrast. At its centre is a large Robinia tree surrounded by a curtain of stainless steel balls, running with cascading water. This space stimulates other senses,
enhancing the enjoyment of the garden. The main colour combinations are light green and purple. Euphorbia ,Pittosporum and Ginko all feature heavily. The garden brings together two brands with immense heritage; Coutts, established in 1739 and SeeAbility, formerly the Royal School for the Blind founded in 1799. This garden represents Coutts’ inaugural sponsorship
of a Chelsea garden. The firm chose to collaborate with SeeAbility based on its support of environmental and social investment and contribution to charitable activity in local communities.