This year’s submission theme for Chaumont is “Once Upon a Time, in a Garden/Enchanted or Enchanting Garden”.

Fairytales can liberate us from reality with strong narratives, tales, fables and fantastic scenery.

The brief illudes to create a 210m2 garden that creates an adventure through a magical world, pulling on the emotional and physical power of myths and fairytales. Furthermore, the brief requests that it be experimental and imaginative, with a strong, easy-to-understand narrative and a strong use of quality plants and design.

Overall, it must be simple to understand without interpretation signage.

Alongside this, it has to be reasonably robust to withstand thousands of visitors of all ages and abilities and deal with the contrasting seasons from April to November.

After a mind map session, we came up with many ideas to explore. I was really inspired to explore different aspects of scale and surrealism alongside how it’s not always a happy ending. Could once upon a time be a nostalgic recollection of happier times at the end of life?

I then took my research to folklores across the ages and explored “The Kraken”, “Sirens of the Sea”, and “Fairies, Gnomes & Pixies”.

A Fairy Garden would be ethereal, with winding, mysterious pathways and intricately designed sculptures. Hidden and secret passages and elements.

The Kraken Garden would have a huge sculptural Kraken that visitors would walk over, under, and through as they wind through the garden. Inside the Kraken’s head would be a surrealist experience of the Kraken’s past meal. Areas around the Kraken would be swap-like, rich with moss and lichen to show the age of the beast.

The Siren Garden would have large sculptural rocks with Sculptures of Sirens sitting on them; these could be sculptures or representations through planting. throughout the garden would be the beautiful but mysterious music getting louder to the key point of interest. The planting would be coastal with structural planting alongside wispy soft grasses to imitate rocks and waves.