Monty Don: Was winner a garden?

FEATURING a beaver dam and lodge, this year’s winning show garden at the Chelsea Flower Show was more subtle shades than bright blooms.

Now green-fingered guru Monty Don has questioned whether the entry ‘is a real garden’ at all.

The Rewilding Britain garden was crowned best in show with a perfect score of 36 points.

Looking messy and designed to appear like a beaver’s habitat, the project epitomised the trend towards more muted spaces with lots of foliage.

Daily Mail columnist Don, speaking during the BBC’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show coverage, said: ‘The question it raises to me is... Rewilding Britain was beautifully done, but was it a garden?’ He added: ‘It is a show garden and it has a right to win. Whether it is a real garden or not, I’m not sure.’

Fellow presenter Joe Swift agreed, saying: ‘To me it’s a landscape, a recreation, but just bringing it to Chelsea technically turns it into a garden.’