A throwaway remark by Alan Titchmarsh inspired Matthew Wilson’s design for this year’s Chelsea Flower Show. At times, he’s wished he hadn’t been listening.
“We were chatting at the Garden Museum and he said: ‘Do you know what? I’m so sick of straight lines. I wish people would do something curvy.’ I had just started on the concept for my garden, but I went home, threw it in the bin and started again.”
But as Mr Wilson got stuck into actually constructing the curved decking and walkways that define the Royal Bank of Canada Garden, he realised something. “There’s a reason people do things in straight lines: it’s because curves are an absolute nightmare to build.”
It is the first time that the 48-year-old landscape