Wonderland

Name of a garden which Kim designed in cooperation with Richard Lucas for the Garden Festival at Holker Hall, from 4 to 6 June 2004. The garden was based upon an ‘Alice in Wonderland’ theme, just like the award-winning All About Alice garden which Kim designed in 2001.
The garden is a 10m circle divided into four quarters. Each quadrant displays a different element of the story: the Mad Hatters Tea Party, the Queen of Hearts, the Chess Match and the Magic Mushroom Garden.


Tower Garden

Enchanted exhibited at the Hampton Court Palace Garden Show, 7 to 11 July 2004 with a large show garden entitled ‘The Tower Garden. Designed by Mark Turner and Michael Steel, assistance in planting was provided by Kim Wilde and Richard Lucas.

The garden was a continuation of the story behind 2003’s garden from Enchanted, ‘A Moment Out of Time… Lady Beth’s Dream’. In 2004, Lady Beth Randelson, having made her last entry in her diary, has disappeared and was last seen entering the garden one early summer’s evening.
The shaded garden was a bridge between this world and other magical realms. The planting was muted, wild and overgrown as the garden was untended for at least two years. Nature was reclaiming the garden. Ferns and ivy abounded around dead wood and moss flowers. An old waterfall tower sent cascades of water down broken steps and stairwells. Faerie sculptures made by Enchanted Ltd were featured in the garden.


Kim Wilde Garden

Kim Wilde designed a unique show garden at the Festival grounds at the Dundee Flower and Food Festival in Dundee, Scotland, which was held from 4 to 6 September 2004. Entitled the ‘Kim Wilde Garden’, it was constructed by Dundee College Horticultural Department and Craigmills Skillcentre.


Jungle Gym garden

Kim Wilde and David Fountain designed the ‘Jungle Gym garden’, which was opened in July 2005 on the grounds of Capel Manor Horticultural College, Enfield. In the Jungle Gym garden Kim and David have created a colourful and imaginative space for young people to socialise and have fun. The design includes many recycled elements. Pathways and mulch are made from painted recycled tractor tyres and part of the garden’s boundary is marked by brightly painted car exhausts.


All About Alice

Name of the show garden Kim created together with David Fountain for the RHS Tatton Flower Show, from July 18 to 22, 2001.
The garden represented the story of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The garden was built on two levels, with a large gnarled oak tree as its centrepiece displaying a carving of Cheshire Cat.
The lower level of the garden contained a grotto, with tapered walls to give the impression of the room becoming smaller, like the rabbit hole down which Alice tumbled to her adventures. A maze of tall, clipped hornbeam enclosed contorted mirrors to add to the sense of distortion.
Throughout the garden, scale was increased or decreased and the planting was wild and unkempt, in keeping with Alice’s confusion during her strange experiences.
The upper level of the garden represented four stories taken from Alice’s adventures. The Mad Hatter’s tea party amongst wild woodland planting was littered with crockery and a top hat carved from tree trunks. The Queen’s croquet lawn was set in a wild flower meadow. The figures of the Queen, King and a pawn stood on a chessboard of grass and water, which was surrounded by playing cards from the four suits, created from clipped box.

This garden was awarded the ‘Best Show Garden’ award.


A Lifetime Ahead

‘A Lifetime Ahead’ was a garden designed by Kim Wilde for an area in Spalding in 2004. See the accompanying text below.

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Almost all scientists now agree that the earth’s climate is changing, primarily due to increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases caused by human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. The average temperature in Britain is increasing so fast that, in climate terms, gardens are moving south at the rate of 12 metres a day. With waterlogged winters and summer droughts, climate change is going to have a major impact on plant growth, and on the way we design, plant and maintain our gardens.

Our contemporary garden combines several planting styles including Exotic (to take advantage of milder winters and reduced frosts), Mediterranean (able to deal with summer droughts) as well as a bog garden, benefiting from warmer, waterlogged winters. In addition, a wildflower and woodland area provide a valuable natural environment for encouraging wildlife and promoting biodiversity in the garden. Planting is juxtaposed against imaginative sculpture including one comprised of car exhausts – the great emitters of CO2 – as well as a unique water feature incorporating ceramic electricity insulators (usually seen high up on pylons which transmit electricity generated by the burning of fossil fuels) and a totemic windmill structure – a direct reference to one.

Natural sustainable energy resource. Carved wooden totem poles interpret the artwork of the generation set to live ‘a lifetime ahead’, depicting their hopes for tomorrow’s world, and are of course made of wood produced from a sustainable source.

Even though this garden is set for ‘a lifetime ahead’, all planting is suited already to our present climate, given appropriate planting conditions.

Plant list

Agastache foeniculum
Agave americana
Agave americana
Allium sphaerocephalon
Allium schubertii
Allium cristophii
Angelica gigas
Anthemis tinctoria ‘E.C.Buxton’
Armenia ‘Joystick White’
Artemisia ‘Valerie Finnis’
Artemisia ‘Powis Castle’
Arum italicum
Astelia
Aucuba jap. ‘Variegata’
Bambusa vivax
Bambusa vivax spectablis
Betulis utilis
Callicarpa bodinieri
Callistemon vigidus
Camassia
Canna ‘Panache’
Carex elata ‘Bowles Golden’
Carex pendula
Catalpa bignonioides ‘Aurea’
Ceanothus thyrsiflorus
Cercis ‘Forest Pansy’
Chamarops excelsa
Choisya ‘Aztec Pearl’
Cinnanomum camphora
Clianthus puniceus f. albus
Cornus ‘Porlock’
Cornus sanguinea ‘Winter Beauty’
Corylus maxima ‘Purpurea’
Cotinus ‘Grace’
Crambe maritima
Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’
Cynara cardunculus
Cytissus ‘Allgold’
Cornus alba ‘Sibirica’
Cornus stolonifera ‘Flaviramea’
Deschampsia ‘Golden Dew’
Dicksonia antar
Dierama pulcherrimum var.album
Digitalis ferruginea
Digitalis purpurea
Digitalis Purpurea
Echinacea purpurea
Echinops ritro
Elaeagnus ‘Quicksilver’
Elaegnus ebbingei
Eremurus robustus
Eriobotrya japonica Coppertone
Eriobotrya japonica
Eryngium oliverianum
Eryngium giganteum
Eucalyptus gunnii
Eucomis
Euonymus ‘Emerald Gaiety’
Euphorbia myrsinites
Euphorbia purpurea
Euphorbia characias wulfennii
Euphorbia griffithii ‘Fireglow’
Euphorbia polychroma
Fargesia muriellae
Fatshedera
Fatsia japonica
Fejoia sellowiana
Ferula communis
Festuca glauca
Foeniculum vulgare ‘Purpureum’
Fritillaria imperialis
Gunnera maculata
Gaura lindheimeri
Hedychium coccineum ‘Tara’
Helictrotrichon sempervirens.
Helleborus argutifolius
Helleborus feotidus
Heuchera micrantha ‘Palace Purple’
Hippophae rhamnoides
Hordeum jubatum
Hosta sieboldiana var elegans
Hydrangea panniculata ‘Unique’
Hydrangea ‘Snowden’
Iris foetidissima
Iris germanica
Iris sibirica ‘Royal Blue’
Juncus ensifolius
Knautia macedonica
Kniphofia caulescens
Lavendula Papillon
Libertia ixioides
Limonium platyphyllum
Linaria purpurea
Liriope muscari
Lobelia cardinalis
Luzula nivea
Lychnis
Lysimachia ephemerum
Mahonia x media ‘Charity’
Malus ‘Rudolf’
Melianthus major
Millium aureum
Miscanthus saccchariflorus
Miscanthus sinensis ‘Roland’
Mulhembeckia
Musa basjoo
Nandina domestica
Nandina domestica
Nandina ‘Firepower’
Nectaroscordum siculum
Olearia macrodonta
Olea europaea
Onopordum acanthium
Ophiopogon nigrescens
Osmanthus delavayi
Pencil Cypress
Pennisetum alopecuroides ‘Hamelyn’
Perovskia ‘Blue Spire’
Phlomis russelina
Phormium ‘Sundowner’
Phormium Atropurpurea
Phormium tenax
Phyllostachys .v. aurecallis
Phyllostachys vivax ‘Aureocaulis’
Pinus pinea
Pittosporum
Pleioblastus auricomis
Primula bulleyana
Prunus lusitanica
Pseudosasa japonica
Pulstatilla vulgaris
Rheum palmatum ‘Atrosanguineum’
Rhus typhina
Rhus x pulvinata Lacciniata
Rodgersia
Rosa glauca
Rosmarinus ‘Point du Raz’
Rudbeckia ‘Goldstrum’
Saginia
Salvia officinalis ‘Purpurascens’
Salvia uliginosa
Sanguisorba officinalis
Santolina chamaecyparissus
Sasa veitchii /palmatum
Sedum ‘Autumn Glory’
Sedum spathulifolium
Senecio ‘Sunshine’
Sisyrinchium ‘Aunt May’
Soleirolia soleirolii
Stachy’s lantana
Stipa gigantea
Stipa tenuissima
Teucrium fruticans
Trachycarpus fortunii
Typha minima
Verbascum bombyciferum
Verbascum olypicum
Verbena bonariensis
Viburnum lucidum
Yucca filamentosa
Yushiana anceps